The Navy Midshipmen edged out their West Point rivals this year, at least when it came to the latest U.S. News & World Report college rankings.
The U.S. Naval Academy slid into the top spot in the rankings for public national liberal arts colleges, after ranking behind the U.S. Military Academy last year. The category includes schools at least partially funded by the state that range from small liberal arts colleges to large research schools; the U.S. Air Force Academy took third in the rankings, as it did last year.
Elsewhere, the U.S. Coast Guard Academy ranked second and the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy ranked third in the Regional Colleges-North category. The New London, Conn., and Kings Point, N.Y., schools were edged out by the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in New York City, with an enrollment of 858 students who pay $46,700 in yearly tuition and fees, per U.S. News & World Report.
The Annapolis, Md.-based Mids and the West Point, N.Y.-based Cadets scored even in the rankings’ engineering standings, finishing tied for fourth among schools that don’t offer a doctoral program. The Air Force Academy shared sixth place with Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pa.
Williams College in Williamstown, Mass., was named the top national liberal arts college in a ranking that included public and private schools. Navy tied for 17th in that ranking, with Army tied for 21st and Air Force tied for 39th.
Princeton University (alma mater of incoming Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Milley, USA) took top honors in the report’s national-universities ranking, edging out Harvard University.
The Naval Academy, which was founded in Annapolis, Md., in 1845, has an undergraduate enrolment of 4,512 midshipmen. Most recently, three midshipmen and one instructor from the academy’s Oceanography Department spent Labor Day weekend flying seven missions with the Air Force’s 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron through Hurricane Dorian.
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The U.S. Military Academy was founded in 1802. The Air Force Academy was founded in Colorado Springs, Colo., in 1954.
While the schools have touted their success in the rankings, a more popular competition between three of the five service academies begins Oct. 5, when the Navy football team hosts Air Force. Air Force hosts Army on Nov. 3, and the Army-Navy game is set for Dec. 14 in Philadelphia. The team with the best record in the round-robin setup will claim the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy, with the Army Black Knights keeping the hardware (it’s been at West Point since 2017) in the event of a three-way tie.
Amanda Dolasinski is MOAA’s staff writer. She can be reached at amandad@moaa.org. Follow her on Twitter @AmandaMOAA.
