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Thomas Aquinas College Ranked Among US News' Top Colleges

(August 24, 2005)

Santa Paula, California — In the 2006 edition of America's Best Colleges published last week by U.S. News & World Report (U.S. News), Thomas Aquinas College was again ranked among the top 104 liberal arts colleges in the country. Thomas Aquinas College is one of only four Catholic colleges in the country to be ranked in this "top colleges" category, along with the College of the Holy Cross, St. John's University and the College of St. Benedict. Of the new Catholic liberal arts colleges founded in the United States in the past 35 years, Thomas Aquinas College is the only one to have been ranked as a "top college" by U.S. News. Ranking in this highest category is based on a variety of criteria including SAT scores, class size, retention rates, peer assessment, graduation rates and alumni giving.

Thomas Aquinas College was also ranked first of all liberal arts colleges in the nation, Catholic and secular, for the highest percentage of classes under 20 students-100%. Further, the college is one of only four Catholic liberal arts colleges in the country to be ranked in the "least debt" category, which measures the average amount of debt incurred by students.

In addition, U.S. News has again named Thomas Aquinas College a "best value" among all liberal arts colleges, explaining that category as follows: "The higher the quality of the program and the lower the cost, the better the deal. Only schools ranked in the top half of their categories are included, on the premise that the most significant values are among colleges that are above average academically." In this category, Thomas Aquinas College ranked 37th. It is the only Catholic college in the country included in the top 40.

About Thomas Aquinas College: Thomas Aquinas College is a four-year Catholic liberal arts college exclusively devoted to the study of the Great Books, using only the Socratic method of dialogue in all of its classes. There are no text books, no lectures and no electives. Instead, the College offers an entirely integrated curriculum using only the original texts of the greatest thinkers who have helped shape Western Civilization. These authors include St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Augustine, Aristotle, Plato, Shakespeare, Euclid, Dante, Galileo, Descartes, our American Founding Fathers, Adam Smith, Copernicus, Kepler, and Newton to name a few.

Thomas Aquinas College graduates consistently excel in the many world-class institutions where they pursue graduate degrees in such disciplines professions as law, medicine, business, theology and education. They have distinguished themselves in these fields serving as headmasters, business owners, lawyers, priests, doctors, military service men and women, educators and college presidents.