LEXINGTON, Va., Sept. 10, 2018—Virginia Military Institute again placed highly in national rankings of thousands of accredited colleges and universities released recently by four major publications.

For the fourth year in a row, U.S. News & World Report ranked VMI fourth among public national liberal arts colleges, behind the U.S. Military Academy, the U.S. Naval Academy, and the U.S. Air Force Academy.

VMI’s engineering program also held onto its previous ranking of 26th in the category for schools granting only a bachelor’s or master’s degree. The only other Virginia school in the top 100 for engineering was James Madison University, tied for 30th. The rankings in the engineering category are based exclusively on the reputation of the program.

Overall, U.S. News ranked VMI 81st out of 239 national liberal colleges from across the country. The only Virginia schools ranked higher were Washington & Lee University, 11th, and the University of Richmond, 25th. 

The U.S. News rankings are based on such factors as a college’s reputation as rated by academic leaders nationally; the retention of students; class size; quality of the faculty; quality of students; financial resources; graduation rate performance; and alumni giving rate.

In other recent rankings,

-- VMI was also ranked in the top 20 percent nationally by the Wall Street Journal’s U.S. college rankings, coming in at 168th out of 968 colleges and universities. The Institute was ranked in the top 13 percent in the South.

-- In late August, Washington Monthly released its yearly college rankings, showing VMI ranked 39th out of 228 national liberal arts colleges. The only school in Virginia ranked higher was Washington & Lee University, 2nd.

Additionally, the Institute is ranked 31st in the best bang for the buck, southeast, category. Other Virginia schools in that category were W&L, 1st; Mary Baldwin University, 20th; James Madison University, 23rd; Bluefield College, 27th; and the University of Richmond, 28th.

Washington Monthly’s full rankings can be found at https://washingtonmonthly.com/2018-college-guide-and-rankings/.