Academy's engineering program 4th among undergraduate schools -- US News

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U.S. AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. --  U.S. News & World Report released its 2013 Best Colleges rankings today, listing the Air Force Academy among the best in the nation in several categories.

The Air Force Academy tied the U.S. Naval Academy as the No. 4 top undergraduate engineering program in the nation. Several Air Force Academy engineering specialities also received top rankings, including:

-- No. 2 in Aerospace/Aeronautical/Astronautical engineering, for the 12th consecutive year
-- No. 5 in Civil Engineering
-- No. 5 in Computer Engineering
-- Tied for No. 6 in Electrical Engineering, with the U.S. Naval Academy
-- No. 8 in Mechanical Engineering
-- No. 56 in Undergraduate Business Program, tied with several other universities

Another recent addition to the U.S. News & World Report best college rankings is the category of how high school counselors rank national universities and national liberal arts colleges. These rankings categorize the Air Force Academy as a liberal arts college, and high school counselors ranked the Air Force Academy in a three-way tie with West Point and Harvey Mudd College as the No. 2 best liberal arts college in the nation.

The magazine also ranked the Air Force Academy at No. 31 of the 253 liberal arts colleges, and splits those colleges into subcategories of public and private liberal arts colleges. In the subcategory of public liberal arts colleges, the Air Force Academy ranks third in the nation.

Each of these rankings are compiled using several weighted factors, which are: undergraduate academic reputation as determined by academic peer assessment, graduation and retention rates, faculty resources, student selectivity, financial resources, graduation rate performance, and alumni giving.

At the U.S. Air Force Academy, the student-to-faculty ratio is 7:1, average class size is 19.6, 100 percent of the faculty is full-time and zero classes are taught by teaching assistants.

For more information on the U.S. News & World Report rankings which were released today, visit http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges.

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