Whitman College up four spots in "U.S. News" 2015 rankings

According to "U.S. News and World Report's" 2015 college rankings, Whitman College is the 37th best liberal arts college in the country.

Whitman has risen four spots since last year's rankings and six spots in the past two years, tying this year with three other colleges: Dickinson College, Skidmore College and Franklin and Marshall College.

"That Whitman College continues to rise in the ‘U.S. News' rankings is a testament to the work that faculty and staff invest in improving the quality of our students' educational experiences," said Whitman President George Bridges. "We are pleased to be recognized as one of our country's top liberal arts colleges, and as a school that supports its students from their first year through graduation and beyond."

This year's ranking was created based on data from almost 1,800 colleges and universities, using "quantitative measures that education experts have proposed as reliable indicators of academic quality, and ... our researched view of what matters in education. "

The quantitative measures include graduation rates and freshmen retention rates, categories in which Whitman scores highly. The college scored a 94 percent average freshman retention rate, while the actual graduation rate for the class of 2013 was 88 percent, 3 percent higher than the expected rate.

"U.S. News" also highlighted the student to faculty ratio of 9:1 and the fact that 66.4 percent of Whitman classes have fewer than 20 students.

The new rankings also take into account campus activities - including varsity and intramural sports, in which 70 percent of students participate - and unique programs such as Semester in the West and Encounters.

See Whitman's full profile here, or go to the complete rankings here.