Sep 07, 2005 - Claremont, Calif. -

Harvey Mudd College repeated its stellar performance in the annual fall barrage of college rankings published by national newsmagazines and organizations this year.

Notably, in a new set of rankings issued by Washington Monthly designed to debunk the more highly publicized U.S.News & World Report rankings, HMC was listed fourth in the nation among liberal arts colleges. Washington Monthly used a unique set of criteria for measuring "what colleges are doing for the country." HMC's fourth spot meant leapfrogging past traditional U.S.News rankings heavyweight colleges, such as Williams (which dropped from number 1 to 14), Amherst (2 to 6) and Swarthmore (3 to 21). Washington Monthly's methodology took into account student contributions to the community and measures of social mobility.

According the Washington Monthly: "The first question we asked was, what does America need from its universities? From this starting point, we came up with three central criteria: Universities should be engines of social mobility, they should produce the academic minds and scientific research that advance knowledge and drive economic growth, and they should inculcate and encourage an ethic of service. We designed our evaluation system accordingly."

"Mudders have always jumped right in," said HMC Dean of Faculty Daniel Goroff of this recognition." Faced with the Sputnik crisis 50 years ago, the public-spirited pioneers who founded Harvey Mudd College gave us a challenging mission: that our graduates should have '...a clear understanding of the impact of their work on society.' This is even more critical today. Of all the dimensions on which you could measure excellence at the college, service to society continues to motivate us in particularly resonant and meaningful ways."

The Princeton Review's "Best 361 College Rankings" also gave HMC high marks, notably in Academics (5th for "Professors Make Themselves Available" and "Their Students Never Stop Studying" and 14th for "Professors Get High Marks") and in Demographics (10th for "Gay Community Accepted"). The latter ranking was particularly well received at the college as a reflection of efforts underway for many years to create a welcoming environment for students, faculty and staff irrespective of sexual orientation, race, gender, religious or political beliefs.

The "big daddy" of college rankings (and most controversial) U.S.News & World Report again ranked HMC in the top 20 among liberal arts colleges (18th) and 2nd among undergraduate engineering programs. Matching last year's overall score of 83 in the liberal arts rankings, HMC dropped two spots as other colleges' scores improved. Although it offers no specialties in engineering, HMC was nonetheless listed among the top five colleges in computer, electrical/electronic/communications and mechanical engineering.