U.S. News & World Report has just released its 2012 edition of America's Best Colleges. Following are some of the top ranked schools in the National Liberal Arts Colleges category:

Claremont McKenna College (CMC) - It is ranked 9th overall among the nation's 266 liberal arts colleges surveyed. Within the rankings, CMC is placed 6th in Admission Selectivity; 4th in Graduation and Retention; and 8th in Faculty Resources. Its acceptance rate is also one of the lowest, at 17 percent.

University of North Carolina at Asheville - It is rated as the eighth best public liberal arts college in the nation. UNC Asheville is also again recognized by U.S. News for affordability as measured by student debt. The University ranked 22nd among 252 private and public national liberal arts colleges for least debt among students graduating in 2010.

Westminster College - Ranked 3rd among National Liberal Arts Colleges in graduation rate performance, according to the U.S. News Best Colleges rankings 2012. Westminster's 79% graduation rate was 13 % higher than predicted and trailed only Kentucky's Berea College (+16) and North Carolina's Bennett College (+15) among the nation's top 252 National Liberal Arts Colleges.

Allegheny College - It is placed among the top 100 liberal arts colleges in the nation. Allegheny is the only college in western Pennsylvania to make the rankings for the best 100 national liberal arts colleges. It is also one of only five schools in its category recognized as an “Up-and-Comer.”

Lawrence University - It is ranked 60th among the national liberal arts colleges and universities. The University had strong showings in several of the categories used in the ranking methodology, including number of incoming students ranked in the top 10 percent of their high school class (43 %), freshman retention rate (88 percent), graduation rate (73 %), full-time faculty (93 %), alumni giving rate (40 %) and classes with less than 20 students (78%).

* Suggested Reading:

Best Graduate Business Schools 2012

Washington Monthly 2011 College Ranking

US News National University Rankings 2012

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Kelvin Wong Loke Yuen is a top academician with extensive years of teaching experience. He holds an MBA and a Postgraduate Diploma from Heriot-Watt (UK's World-Class University) and a BCom degree from Adelaide (Australia's Group of Eight University), as well as many other internationally recognized certifications. Check out his profile on: LinkedIn

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