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Sept. 10, 2013 – For the second year in a row, Allegheny College is one of only 10 schools in its category recognized by U.S. News and World Report as an “Up-and-Comer” in its rankings released today.

“Up-and-Comers” are identified by college presidents, provosts and admissions deans at their peer schools as having recently made, according to U.S. News, “the most promising and innovative changes in the areas of academics, faculty, student life, campus, or facilities.” The University of Richmond and Ursinus and Beloit Colleges also made the list.

U.S. News and World Report once again names Allegheny College among the top 100 liberal arts colleges in the nation and also lists it as an “A+ School for B Students.”

The U.S. News rankings are the latest in a number of accolades for the college.

• In August Allegheny jumped 17 spots to number 24 in the Best Liberal Arts Colleges category of the 2013 Washington Monthly college rankings. Allegheny joins Top 25 perennially elite national liberal-arts colleges such as Bryn Mawr, Carleton, Swarthmore, Bates, Haverford, Macalester, Oberlin, Williams, Amherst and Davidson.

• Newsweek/Daily Beast listed Allegheny as the 20th “most rigorous” nationally, ranked between Duke and Harvard.

• Allegheny ranks 23rd nationally in Peace Corps placement among small colleges.

• Hillel’s Foundation for Jewish Campus Life named Allegheny as one of 20 “small and mighty campuses of excellence” in its newly updated college guide.

• Allegheny is also among the 40 schools profiled in Loren Pope’s influential “Colleges That Change Lives.”

The college has taken national leadership roles both in sustainability – the Princeton Review and other guides list it as one of the most environmentally responsible colleges in the country – and in the national conversation on civility. The Allegheny College Prize for Civility in Public Life, awarded annually at the National Press Club, has put Allegheny at the forefront of the national debate to enhance civility in U.S. politics.

Allegheny offers one of the most distinctive liberal arts educations in the nation, said its president, James H. Mullen Jr.

Allegheny requires students to select a minor as well as a major, with the minor outside the academic division of the major, and also requires a Senior Project, a significant piece of independent study, research or creative work conducted under the supervision of one or more faculty members.

“These facets of an Allegheny education give our students an extraordinary breadth of knowledge and experience,” said Mullen. “Employers and graduate schools tell us again and again that they are looking for exactly the kind of college graduates that Allegheny prepares: individuals who can think critically and creatively, write clearly, speak persuasively and who can use those skills to meet the constantly changing challenges both of the workplace and the world.”

The 32nd oldest college in the country, Allegheny College will celebrate its bicentennial in 2015.