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Oct. 17, 2013 — Allegheny College ranks among the 100 “best values” in liberal arts colleges in the nation, according to Kiplinger’s Personal Finance, a private financial advising company.

A number of other national liberal arts colleges in Pennsylvania made the top 100, including Swarthmore, Haverford, Lafayette, Bryn Mawr, Bucknell, Gettysburg, Dickinson, Franklin & Marshall, Muhlenberg and Ursinus.

Kiplinger’s rankings measure both academic quality and affordability. Academic criteria include the student admission rate (the number of students accepted out of those who apply), the test scores of incoming freshmen, the ratio of students to faculty members and the four- and five-year graduation rates.

On the cost side, Kiplinger’s measures the sticker price, the availability and average amount of need-based and merit-based financial aid, and the average student debt at graduation.

Many of the schools on the top 100 list, including Allegheny, have appeared in Kiplinger’s rankings in previous years, demonstrating that these schools consistently deliver good value.

The Kiplinger rankings are the latest in a number of accolades for the college.

• 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 August Allegheny jumped 17 spots to number 24 in the Best Liberal Arts Colleges category of the 2013 Washington Monthly college rankings.

• In September Allegheny ranked 24th among liberal arts colleges when measured by how happy graduates report being, overall, in their lives today. The rankings are reported in the 2013-14 edition of “The Alumni Factor,” a college guidebook that is based on the real-world experiences and successes of graduates.

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

• 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.

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