We rarely see eye-to-eye with the liberal Washington Monthly but their college rankings are an intriguing alternative to the much-heralded U. S. News rankings that administrators everywhere dream of getting in.
The Washington Monthly rankings start off about the way the U. S. News roster does, with Harvard, MIT, Stanford, Princeton and Yale. Then it gets interesting.
For the top 5 liberal arts colleges, the WM lists Berea in Kentucky, Washington and Lee University in Virginia, Harvey Mudd College in California, Amherst College in Massachusetts and Bowdoin College in Maine.
The rankings include not only those the editors consider the best Master’s programs but also those they deem the best trade schools.