High school counselors rate USAFA No. 1

  • Published
  • By John Van Winkle
  • Air Force Academy Public Affairs
U.S. AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. --  The Air Force Academy was ranked No. 1 in the nation by high school guidance counselors and second in the nation in aeronautical and astronautical engineering Monday by U.S. News and World Report's Best College Rankings of 2012.

Other accolades the Academy earned include a tie for the No. 5 position in undergraduate engineering programs with California Polytechnic University and the U.S. Naval Academy, No. 5 among undergraduate electrical engineering programs, No. 33 among liberal-arts colleges and No. 55 among undergraduate business school programs.

High school counselor rankings are new to the U.S. News rankings, according to a release announcing the rankings.

"In spring 2011, we asked guidance from counselors from all the high schools in U.S. News' 2010 Best High Schools rankings, as well as from the largest private independent schools nationwide, to tell us which national universities and national liberal arts colleges they think offer the best undergraduate education to their students," a U.S. News and World Report release states. "They rated the universities on a scale of one to five, with five being the top score."

Almost three out of four classes at the Academy have fewer than 20 students, and the overall student-to-faculty ratio is 8:1.