 copy.jpg){kind=avatar}
20 Best Liberal Arts Colleges in the U.S.
What’s Covered:
- Our Ranking Methodology
- Ranked List Of The Best Liberal Arts Colleges
- What Are Your Chances Of Acceptance
The philosophy of liberal arts colleges is to prepare students for life, not just a career—teaching them how to think, learn, communicate, and make connections between different fields. Keep reading to learn about the most well-regarded liberal arts colleges in the country.
Our Ranking Methodology
Creating our list of the 20 best liberal arts colleges in the U.S., we focused on school quality, outcomes, and return on investment (ROI). We also considered data such as retention rate, selectivity, endowment per student, student-faculty ratio, median earnings, average debt, and cost of attendance, along with other factors.
Ranked List of the Best Liberal Arts Colleges
1. Williams College
Location: Williamstown, MA
Acceptance Rate: 8%
Middle 50% SAT/ACT: 1500-1560/34-35
Undergraduate Enrollment: 2,101
Williams offers an affordable and exceptional opportunity for students looking to attend one of the most well-known and well-regarded liberal arts colleges in the U.S. The school practices need-blind admissions and will meet 100% of demonstrated financial need—mostly without loans.
On average, a Williams grant (which doesn’t require repayment) totals $86,000. As a bonus, Williams is one of only a few colleges in the country that guarantees free textbooks and course materials to all students receiving financial aid.
Located in Western Massachusetts, students are surrounded by nature and have easy access to hiking and other outdoor activities.
Learn more about Williams and what it takes to get accepted.
2. Pomona College
Location: Claremont, CA
Acceptance Rate: 7%
Middle 50% SAT/ACT: 1500-1550/33-35
Undergraduate Enrollment: 1,766
Pomona College is a member of the Claremont Colleges—a group of seven schools located within a 546-acre neighborhood that shares resources, which allows it to provide the advantages of a small liberal arts college along with the resources of a large university.
Pomona College practices need-blind admissions and meets 100% of the demonstrated financial need of all accepted students. Since 2008, all financial aid awards at Pomona have been a combination of scholarships, grants, and work-study, and don’t include packaged loans.
Learn more about Pomona and what it takes to get accepted.
3. Bowdoin College
Location: Brunswick, ME
Acceptance Rate: 7%
Middle 50% SAT/ACT: 1470-1540/33-35
Undergraduate Enrollment: 1,881
Founded in 1794, Bowdoin College is one of the oldest institutions of higher education in the country; in fact, it’s 25 years older than the state of Maine, where it’s located! A testament to the liberal arts education offered at Bowdoin is the success of its graduates in a wide variety of fields, which include literary titans such as Nathaniel Hawthorne and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, tech leaders like Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, and entrepreneur/restaurateur and Subway co-founder Peter Buck.
Learn more about Bowdoin and what it takes to get accepted.
4. Amherst College
Location: Amherst, MA
Acceptance Rate: 9%
Middle 50% SAT/ACT: 1500-1560/33-345
Undergraduate Enrollment: 1,914
An open curriculum has been a hallmark of Amherst College since the early 1970s. The college has no distribution requirements or core curriculum, and just one mandatory class: a first-year seminar. To earn a degree, students need to complete their major’s required courses, but are free to fill out the rest of their coursework from the college’s more than 800 classes, allowing them to pursue areas of intellectual interest.
If Amherst doesn’t offer a course a student wants, no problem—through the Five College Consortium, students can choose from thousands of classes at Hampshire, Mount Holyoke, Smith, and UMass Amherst.
Learn more about Amherst and what it takes to get accepted.
5. Wellesley College
Location: Wellesley, MA
Acceptance Rate: 14%
Middle SAT/ACT: 1470-1550/33-35
Undergraduate Enrollment: 2,407
Wellesley College is one of the “Seven Sisters,” a name given to seven historically all-women colleges—five of which remain women’s colleges today (Radcliffe began merging with Harvard in 1977 and Vassar became coeducational in 1969). The other Seven Sisters schools are:
- Barnard College
- Bryn Mawr College
- Mount Holyoke College
- Smith College
In addition to attending one of the best liberal arts colleges in the U.S. and one of the most prestigious all-women schools in the country, Wellesley College students can cross-register at MIT, Babson College, Brandeis University, and the Olin College of Engineering.
Learn more about Wellesley and what it takes to get accepted.
6. Claremont McKenna College
Location: Claremont, CA
Acceptance Rate: 10%
Middle SAT/ACT: 1490-1550/33-35
Undergraduate Enrollment: 1,390
In addition to being one of the best liberal arts colleges in the U.S. and offering 33 majors and 11 sequences, Claremont McKenna College is a part of the Claremont Consortium—a seven-school group including:
- Harvey Mudd College
- Pitzer College
- Pomona College
- Scripps College
- Claremont Graduate University
- Keck Graduate Institute
The schools of the Claremont Consortium share resources such as varsity sports, a health center, campus safety, dining halls, libraries, and clubs. Almost all Claremont McKenna College students (99%) cross-register at another school in the consortium and take advantage of the more than 2,000 courses offered annually.
Learn more about Claremont McKenna and what it takes to get accepted.
7. Swarthmore College
Location: Swarthmore, PA
Acceptance Rate: 7%
Middle 50% SAT/ACT: 1500-1550/33-35
Undergraduate Enrollment: 1,623
Unlike many of the best liberal arts colleges, Swarthmore offers an undergraduate engineering program, allowing students to combine the study of classic liberal arts themes with STEM education. The combination of liberal arts and engineering produces well-rounded students who can communicate and collaborate as well as they can handle technical challenges.
Swarthmore is a member of the Tri-College Consortium—along with Bryn Mawr and Haverford College—extending students’ social and academic opportunities. Additionally, cross-registration is available at the University of Pennsylvania.
Learn more about Swarthmore and what it takes to get accepted.
8. Middlebury College
Location: Middlebury, VT
Acceptance Rate: 11%
Middle 50% SAT/ACT: 1450-1530/33-35
Undergraduate Enrollment: 2,760
Helping make Middlebury College one of the best liberal arts colleges in the U.S. are its prestigious language programs. The college offers programs in:
- Abenaki
- Arabic
- Chinese
- English
- French
- German
- Hebrew
- Italian
- Japanese
- Korean
- Portuguese
- Russian
- Spanish
Middlebury offers language courses for students at all levels, along with providing an immersive experience for its language students with its “Language Pledge,” a promise to speak only the language they’re studying for the duration of the program.
Learn more about Middlebury and what it takes to get accepted.
9. Washington and Lee University
Location: Lexington, VA
Acceptance Rate: 14%
Middle 50% SAT/ACT: 1430-1540/33-34
Undergraduate Enrollment: 1,886
Founded in 1749, Washington and Lee is one of the oldest schools in the U.S. One of the traditions that defines the college is the school’s honor system. Rather than being codified, each generation of students—with no faculty or board oversight—defines the behavior they deem dishonorable. Washington and Lee’s students believe in the strength of their community inside and outside of the classroom; therefore, there’s just one penalty for breaching the honor system: dismissal from the school.
Learn more about Washington and Lee and what it takes to get accepted.
10. Haverford College
Location: Haverford, PA
Acceptance Rate: 12%
Middle 50% SAT/ACT: 1470-1540/33-35
Undergraduate Enrollment: 1,430
Established by the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in 1833, Haverford remains a school that is governed by values of peace and equity. One central facet is the honor code, which is student-governed and plays a central role in academic life and beyond at the college.
Like Swarthmore, Haverford is a member of the Tri-College Consortium and offers a wide array of programs. Research and seminar-style courses are the foundation of these programs. The college is also known for the natural beauty of its arboretum campus.
Learn more about Haverford and what it takes to get accepted.
11. Wesleyan University
Location: Middletown, CT
Acceptance Rate: 16%
Middle 50% SAT/ACT: 1300-1500/31-34
Undergraduate Enrollment: 3,805
Wesleyan’s open curriculum gives students the opportunity to enjoy flexibility while they pursue their program of choice and take academic risks. Along with participating in diverse academic coursework, students are also able to take advantage of numerous internship opportunities and a vast number of study abroad options. Students may also participate in programs like 3-2 engineering collaborations with the California Institute of Technology, Columbia University, and Dartmouth College.
A set of principles governs Wesleyan’s approach to undergraduate education. These principles define the qualities the institution believes each student should have when they graduate.
Learn more about Wesleyan and what it takes to get accepted.
12. Carleton College
Location: Northfield, MN
Acceptance Rate: 20%
Middle 50% SAT/ACT: 1470-1540/32-35
Undergraduate Enrollment: 2,128
Students at Carleton College take the foundational skills acquired by a liberal arts education and continue to build on them after graduation. About 75% of Carleton alumni go to graduate school within five years of earning their undergraduate degree and approximately 20% go directly to graduate school after their time at the college.
It’s not all academics at Carleton, though—it’s one of the best liberal arts colleges for fun as well, with student groups like the college’s Quidditch team (the “Motley Muggles”) and traditions such as the “silent dance party” that is held before final exams.
Learn more about Carleton and what it takes to get accepted.
13. Hamilton College
Location: Clinton, NY
Acceptance Rate: 14%
Middle 50% SAT/ACT: 1460-1530/33-35
Undergraduate Enrollment: 2,037
Named after one of our founding fathers and the first U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton, Hamilton College has earned a reputation as a school of opportunity. In 2008, it eliminated merit scholarships and reallocated the funds to financial aid—today, it boasts need-blind admissions and will meet 100% of the demonstrated financial need of admitted students.
Opportunity is also a staple of Hamilton’s coursework. The college has an open curriculum and allows students the freedom to choose the classes that interest them intellectually. Except for courses required for their majors, the only other courses students need to graduate are three writing-intensive classes and one in quantitative and symbolic reasoning.
Learn more about Hamilton and what it takes to get accepted.
14. Davidson College
Location: Davidson, NC
Acceptance Rate: 14%
Middle 50% SAT/ACT: 1420-1510/31-34
Undergraduate Enrollment: 1,869
Governed by an Honor Code, dating back to the college’s founding in 1837, Davidson combines deep-seated values with a strong community. The arts, undergraduate research, and 74 majors, minors, and interdisciplinary programs are just part of the Davidson experience. All of this takes place on a campus that blends century-old architecture with state-of-the-art technology and facilities.
Today, thanks to the Davidson Trust, the college also pledges to meet 100% of calculated financial need of all accepted students without loans.
Learn more about Davidson and what it takes to get accepted.
15. Vassar College
Location: Poughkeepsie, NY
Acceptance Rate: 19%
Middle 50% SAT/ACT: 1460-1520/32-34
Undergraduate Enrollment: 2,462
Vassar was one of the Seven Sisters—a group of historically all-women colleges in the Northeast—but opened its doors to men in 1969, who now make up roughly 40% of the student body.
Vassar’s open curriculum places a few requirements on students besides those related to their major. They’re required to take a Freshman seminar, a one-semester quantitative class (in mathematics, natural sciences, psychology, or certain economics courses), and display proficiency in a foreign language, which students can test out of.
Learn more about Vassar and what it takes to get accepted.
16. Barnard College
Location: New York, NY
Acceptance Rate: 9%
Middle 50% SAT/ACT: 1370-1500/31-34
Undergraduate Enrollment: 3,269
Founded in 1889 as a women’s liberal arts college, Barnard is another Seven Sisters school. The college maintains a close relationship with Columbia University, right across the street. In fact, students benefit from all the resources the larger university has to offer, including courses, extracurricular activities, athletic fields, and even dining halls. The two institutions also have combined degree programs. In many ways, this is the best of both worlds—Barnard students enjoy a liberal arts college feel with all the benefits of a large university.
Learn more about Barnard and what it takes to get accepted.
17. Colby College
Location: Waterville, ME
Acceptance Rate: 7%
Middle 50% SAT/ACT: 1440-1550/32-34
Undergraduate Enrollment: 2,000
Colby College is known for pioneering the 4-1-4 academic calendar. Following the 4-1-4 model, Colby students take four classes in the fall and four in the spring. In between, however, they’re allowed to choose between a variety of intensive academic experiences, ranging from conducting research to undertaking an internship.
Colby is also notable for the “Colby Commitment,” a pledge to meet 100% of its students demonstrated financial need without loans. Even better, students from families making less than $65k will pay nothing, and those making less than $150k will have contributions capped at $15k per year.
Learn more about Colby and what it takes to get accepted.
18. Harvey Mudd College
Location: Claremont, CA
Acceptance Rate: 13%
Middle 50% SAT/ACT: 1510-1560/34-36
Undergraduate Enrollment: 921
Harvey Mudd is unique in that it is a liberal arts college that specializes in STEM disciplines and exclusively awards the Bachelor of Science degree to graduates. The foundation of the curriculum is the Common Core, offering a broad foundation in STEM disciplines. Additionally, students are required to take courses in the Humanities, Social Sciences, and the Arts.
Harvey Mudd is also a member of the Claremont Colleges, so students can take advantage of courses and resources at other schools in Claremont.
Learn more about Harvey Mudd and what it takes to get accepted.
19. Colorado College
Location: Colorado Springs, CO
Acceptance Rate: 18%
Middle 50% SAT/ACT: 1240-1440/29-33
Undergraduate Enrollment: 2,031
Founded in 1874, Colorado College offers a unique approach to education through its Block Plan. There are four blocks per semester, and each 18-day block, which equals one course, enables students to enjoy flexibility while concentrating their energies on the topics they want to study. This also allows students to take time to pursue extracurricular interests like volunteering or engaging in research.
Not only do students enjoy this flexibility, but they’re also able to pursue interests across departments and explore one or more of 80 majors.
Learn more about Colorado College and what it takes to get accepted.
20. University of Richmond
Location: University of Richmond, VA
Acceptance Rate: 22%
Middle 50% SAT/ACT: 1430-1510/33-35
Undergraduate Enrollment: 3,722
The University of Richmond comprises five academic schools and two colleges, but all undergraduates begin their studies at the School of Arts & Sciences (A&S). About two-thirds of students remain in A&S, while the others move on to either the Robins School of Business or the Jepson School of Leadership Studies.
Students have plenty of opportunities at the University of Richmond, from study abroad programs to internships. One notable feature is living-learning communities, where students with common interests live together and share learning experiences outside the classroom.
Learn more about Richmond and what it takes to get accepted.
What Are Your Chances of Acceptance?
All of these schools are extremely selective, but your personal chances of admission may be higher or lower than the published rates, depending on your profile. Wondering whether you have what it takes to get into these elite liberal arts colleges?
CollegeVine can help you find out. Our free admissions calculator can predict your odds of acceptance at over 1,600 colleges and universities. Using your grades, testing scores, extracurriculars, and more, CollegeVine estimates your chances of acceptance. It even offers insight into how to improve your profile and increase your chances of getting into your dream school.
