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U.S. News & World Report Ranks Southwestern University Among the Nation’s Best Liberal Arts Colleges
Southwestern is ranked #84 on U.S. News & World Report’s 2026 Best National Liberal Arts Colleges list, the University’s second-highest ranking in over a decade.
September 23, 2025
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Southwestern University continues to rank among the nation’s best liberal arts colleges. In their annual Best National Liberal Arts Colleges list, U.S. News & World Report has ranked Southwestern #84 in the country, the second-highest among Texas liberal arts colleges this year.
The honor marks Southwestern’s second-highest ranking by the publication since 2014. U.S. News & World Report ranked SU #83 on their 2025 list. Since Laura Skandera Trombley was inaugurated as University President, Southwestern has improved from its lowest-ever ranking of #102 in 2021 up to #84 this year.
In their 2026 rankings, U.S. News & World Report highlighted Southwestern’s outstanding return on investment, placing the University #3 in Texas and #61 in the nation on their Best Value Schools list. Southwestern also ranked #3 in Texas and #122 in the country in the publication’s sixth annual Top Performers in Social Mobility list, a category that places greater weight on outcomes for students receiving Pell Grants.
For more than four decades, U.S. News & World Report’s annual rankings have guided millions of students and families in their college search. For 2026, U.S. News & World Report ranked over 1,700 U.S. colleges and universities, grouped within 10 distinct categories where institutions are compared with schools that share similar academic missions.
Southwestern was included in the National Liberal Arts Colleges category, among fellow institutions who focus almost exclusively on undergraduate education and award at least 50% of their degrees in the arts and sciences. The other classifications include National Universities, which offer graduate programs, Regional Universities (North, South, Midwest, and West), and Regional Colleges (also sorted into North, South, Midwest, and West lists).
U.S. News and World Report assesses colleges and universities based on 17 ranking factors, including graduation rates, first-year retention rates, borrower debt, student-faculty ratio, and peer assessments. More than half of each school’s ranking is based on student outcome measures that track each institution’s success in preparing students for life after college.
