Individual college guides often tend to focus on a narrow set of criteria, but when taken together, they can help to present a more complete picture. Below is a summary of the College’s reviews in the latest editions of the various publications:
- Top 100 among the country’s national liberal arts colleges
- Top 25 in the United States for social mobility
- No. 2 for alumni satisfaction as measured by annual giving
- No. 1 for the highest proportion of classes under 20 students (100 percent) and the lowest proportion of classes with more than 50 students (0 percent)
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- High ratings for Return on Investment (90), academics (92), financial aid (96), faculty accessibility (98), and quality of instruction (99/99).
- Top 15 percent of American four-year colleges
- No. 7 nationwide for financial aid
- No. 5 for “Happiest Students,” No. 5 for “Most Religious Students,” No. 4 for “Professors Get High Marks,” and No. 1 for “Most Conservative Students.”
- Results from student survey include: 1) Academics are “difficult, mind blowing, extremely enjoyable, and intensely interesting.” 2) The Catholic faith is dear to the students, many of whom “attend Mass daily.” 3) The College offers “culture of casual kindness,” where students are “friendly and comfortable with each other” and “always willing to have a good conversation.”
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- One of only 15 recommended colleges and universities in the United States
- “Impressive intellectual rigor that is matched by a commitment to orthodox Catholicism.”
- “The first in a wave of new Catholic colleges born from the crisis of Catholic identity in American Catholic higher education.”
- “The only Catholic college in America that teaches exclusively from [the] classic works of Western civilization.”
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- Top 2 percent of country’s major colleges and universities
- Two campuses constitute two of only seven colleges in the U.S. to receive a perfect score for ensuring that students study seven key areas: composition, literature, American history, foreign language, mathematics, science, and economics.
- Highest rating for strength of curriculum
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- “Devoted to providing a strong education while being rooted in the Roman Catholic faith”
- “Great student to faculty ratio”
- “Excellent graduation and freshman retention rates”
- “Diverse student body that comes from states all across the nation”
- Also listed among Best 10 Colleges for the Money
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- One of only 44 “faithfully Catholic colleges and universities nationwide” chosen for the “Catholic Identity College Guide”
- Perfect marks for all 10 measures of campus fidelity and moral climate
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- “The best college class I ever attended, undergraduate or graduate, was at Thomas Aquinas College.”
- “[Students] backed up their comments with evidence and careful, logical arguments.”
- “I shall remember this class, where I was but a guest, for the rest of my life.”
- “A rigorous great books curriculum”
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- No. 1 among all colleges and universities
- Only Catholic school to be named to the Top 20
- Rankings based on outstanding academics and affordable cost
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- Among top 150 American liberal arts colleges for “contribution to the public good”
- Top 50 for “Best Bang for the Buck” in the Western United States
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