Some Ga. colleges rank high in U.S.

Agnes Scott, Spelman among those singled out by U.S. News.

Two Georgia women’s colleges were at the top of the class in several categories of the highly coveted U.S. News & World Report annual rankings of the nation’s best schools.

Agnes Scott College was ranked as being the nation’s most innovative liberal arts college and as having the best experience for first-year students. Spelman College was ranked as the nation’s top historically black college and university (HBCU).

The rankings were released Monday, and colleges and universities use the rankings as recruiting tools. Princeton University again topped the list as the nation’s best school. Emory University was the first among Georgia schools on the list, ranking 21st nationally.

U.S. News uses a formula to determine its national universities rankings list that’s based on factors such as graduation rates, student-faculty ratio, student acceptance rate, students’ impression of the school, how students performed on the ACT or SAT and the percentage of students who graduated in the top 10% of their high school graduating class. The publication used some of these factors and others to determine the rankings in other categories. Critics say the national rankings are too heavily weighted in favor of wealthy schools. The top 19 schools on the national universities list are all private schools, many with large endowments.

Some Atlanta-area schools ranked in the top 10 in other categories. Agnes Scott and Georgia State were tied for third and fifth, respectively, for having the best communities for learning. Agnes Scott had the 10th-best study abroad program. Morehouse College was ranked fourth among HBCUs, and Georgia State was ranked as having the fifth-best experience for first-year students.