The U.S. Naval Academy’s spot in a five-way tie for third among liberal arts colleges in the 2027 U.S. News and World Report Best Colleges rankings released Sept. 22 equaled its finish from last year and kept it atop the service academies in the annual list.

The U.S. Military Academy in West Point, N.Y., claimed ninth overall, two spots ahead of the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo. That’s a reversal from last year’s list, where Air Force ranked fifth and Army took 10th.

The top of the liberal arts list stayed the same, with Williams College and Amherst College, both in Massachusetts, taking first and second place. Annual tuition and fees at both schools top $76,000, according to the report.

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The rankings consider graduation and retention rates, graduate salaries, faculty size and salaries, test scores, and a range of other factors.

The engineering programs at all three academies were well-represented in the report, with Army’s program tied for second overall with Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, Calif., among schools where a doctorate is not offered. Navy and Air Force tied for fourth place.

Recognition for Coast Guard

The U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New London, Conn., tied for 10th in those engineering rankings and also ranked first among “Regional Colleges” in the survey’s North Region, repeating last year’s performance. The U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point, N.Y., ranked fifth in the region.

The regional rankings trend toward smaller schools with fewer graduate-level programs. The Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering in Needham, Mass., ranked second among North Region colleges; it has an undergraduate enrollment of about 400 students, according to the survey, with annual tuition and fees of more than $66,000.

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The report also identified the Coast Guard Academy as the fourth “Most Innovative School” in the North Region, tied with the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y. The ranking is based on feedback from college officials and identifies institutions “making promising changes on campus.”

Massachusetts Institute of Technology topped the survey’s national university rankings, edging Princeton and Harvard for the top spot. Princeton took top honors last year.