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Surveying the latest Princeton Review rankings of top American colleges and universities, Allen Grove of About.com observes that Thomas Aquinas College is one of only 10 institutions nationwide named to the guide’s 2012 Financial Aid Rating Honor Roll. Listed alphabetically, the colleges are:

Carleton College (Northfield, MN)
Claremont McKenna College (Claremont, CA)
Columbia University (New York, NY)
Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering (Needham, MA)
Pomona College (Claremont, CA)
Princeton University (Princeton, NJ)
Swarthmore College (Swarthmore, PA)
Thomas Aquinas College (Santa Paula, CA)
Vassar College (Poughkeepsie, NY)
Yale University (New Haven, CT)

“Thomas Aquinas is probably the least familiar school to most readers — it’s a tiny Catholic college with a great books curriculum and no traditional majors,” writes Mr. Grove, College Admissions Guide for About.com, a subsidiary of the New York Times. “It also has an impressive graduation rate and represents an excellent value; it fully deserves its place on this list.”

Elsewhere, Mr. Grove writes:

“Thomas Aquinas College is unique among the nation's Catholic institutions of higher learning. Located on an attractive 131-acre campus in a quiet valley … 65 miles northwest of Los Angeles, this small college approaches liberal education with a clear sense of purpose. The college has no textbooks; instead, students read the great books of Western civilization. The college has no lectures, but sustained tutorials, seminars and laboratories. Thomas Aquinas College also has no majors, for all students acquire a broad and integrated liberal education. The college frequently ranks highly among national liberal arts colleges, and it also wins praise for its small classes and its value.”

Finally, the About.com breakdown of SAT scores for the Top 23 Catholic colleges reveals Thomas Aquinas College to have the third-highest SAT verbal scores nationwide.

 

Posted: August 11, 2011