US News rankings of Maine's top colleges include a few ups and downs

File photo / Michele Stapleton Bowdoin College, whose Brunswick campus is shown here, ranks as the fifth-best liberal arts school in the country, according to U.S. News & World Report.

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By William Hall

A just-released roster of the country's best colleges and universities, published annually by U.S. News & World Report, contains many familiar names. But where some Maine schools show up in the rankings has changed — a bit.

Bowdoin College ranks No. 5 among the 211 liberal arts colleges evaluated nationally by U.S. News. The Brunswick school ties with Pomona College, in Claremont, Calif., for that position, and comes in just below the U.S. Naval Academy and just above Wellesley College.

Fifth place represents a significant rise from Bowdoin's rank of No. 9 last year. But the higher placement is closer to where the Brunswick college has appeared in many previous lists.

Over the prior decade of U.S. News rankings, Bowdoin has placed No. 6 five times, No. 5 twice and No. 4 twice. The school scored its highest rank ever, No. 3, in 2018. U.S. News has published the college rankings since 1984.

Two other liberal arts schools in Maine are also consistent in their high scores.

Colby College, in Waterville, comes in at No. 25 this year, while Bates College, in Lewiston, is No. 26. Last year the order was reversed, with Bates at No. 24 and Colby a notch below, at its current rank.

Bates has placed in the low or mid-20s throughout most of the 40 years of U.S. News college rankings. Colby has seen a few more ups and downs. Its highest rank came in 2020, at No. 11, and the school was No. 12 nationally in 2017 and 2018, according to historical records.

In Bar Harbor, College of the Atlantic made a big jump this year in the national ranking of liberal arts colleges, coming in at No. 136 after placing No. 156 in 2023.

Williams College, in Williamstown, Mass., ranks No. 1 nationally among liberal arts colleges, according to U.S. News.

Universities

Among the 436 universities ranked nationally by U.S. News, the University of Maine in Orono ranks highest this year, No. 259. That's a fall-off from ranks of No. 249 in 2023 and No. 219 in 2022.

The University of New England, which has campuses in Biddeford and Portland, comes in at No. 296 this year, after previous ranks of No. 260 and No. 285 over the past two years.

Bangor-based Husson University saw its rank climb to No. 342, up from No. 361 last year and No. 359 in 2022.

Princeton University ranks No. 1 among universities nationwide in the newest rankings.

U.S. News & World Report says it evaluated nearly 1,500 colleges and universities using 17 measures of academic quality. To see the complete rankings, click here.