The U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., continued its run of bragging rights in the annual U.S. News and World Report college rankings, besting the rest of the service academies and finishing fourth overall in the publication’s list of national liberal arts colleges.

The U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., and the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo., were part of a four-way tie for eighth place on the list, alongside Minnesota’s Carleton College (annual tuition and fees: $68,892) and California’s Claremont McKenna College (tuition/fees: $67,980). Two Massachusetts colleges – Williams and Amherst – took first and second overall, with Pennsylvania’s Swarthmore College in third with the lowest annual tuition/fee rate of the bunch ($65,494).

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Navy has led all academies in the overall rankings since 2018. West Point did take top honors among the schools on the engineering list, finishing fourth nationwide among schools without engineering doctorate programs. Navy and Air Force tied for sixth.

The U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New London, Conn., finished first in the publication’s North Region rankings, while the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point, N.Y., took third.

Another Survey Says …

The U.S. News and World Report rankings, released Sept. 24, factor in more than a dozen indicators, including graduation rates, faculty size and salaries, and test scores. Another September survey, this one from PayScale.com, considered one factor – what schools have the highest-paid graduates.

Navy took third in the nation in the “mid-career” pay rankings, which looked at the median salary for graduates after 10 years. Mid-career Annapolis grads averaged $187,800 per year, according to the report, trailing just the Massachusetts Institute of Technology ($196,900) and Princeton University ($194,100).

[LAST YEAR: Bragging Rights for Naval Academy, Again, in Latest College Rankings]

Army finished 15th ($174,100), Air Force took 18th ($172,800), the Merchant Marine Academy finished 23rd ($168,700, $100 ahead of Georgetown), and the Coast Guard Academy took 81st ($147,400).