San Antonio – Washington Monthly just released its 2010 “College Rankings – What Can Colleges Do for the Country” naming St. Mary’s University No. 1 among the nation’s Master’s Universities and Baccalaureate Colleges. The top ranking recognizes St. Mary’s for promoting community service, fostering scientific and humanistic research, and making a quality college education accessible and affordable. The issue will be available online Monday, August 23 and on newsstands on August 31, subscribers began receiving the issue this weekend.

Washington Monthly brags that its fifth annual college guide is “a different kind of college ranking” that calls attention to “service-oriented schools.” Using publicly reported data, schools are rated based on their contribution to the public good in three broad categories: social mobility (recruiting and graduating low-income students), research (producing cutting-edge scholarship and PhDs) and service (encouraging students to give something back to their country).

“In our rankings, St. Mary’s is the number one master’s university in the country, a testament to its outstanding commitment to serving low-income students and its stellar record of fostering community service,” stated in the America’s Best Master’s Universities and Baccalaureate Colleges article by Erin Dillon, senior policy analyst at Education Sector and who compiled the data for the Washington Monthly rankings this year.

More than 70 percent of our students participate in community service. Historically, St. Mary’s students engage in nearly 150,000 community service hours a year. Accordingly, St. Mary’s has been recognized by on the President of the United States’ Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll for four years in a row. St. Mary’s also boasts a nearly 60 percent average graduation rate of all students.

St. Mary’s University is a Hispanic Serving Institution. Founded in 1852, St. Mary’s is the oldest Catholic university in the Southwest. As a Catholic Marianist University, our mission is to foster the formation of people in faith and educate leaders for the common good through community service, integrated liberal arts and professional education, and academic excellence.

The Washington Monthly No. 1 ranking is just the latest in a series of national rankings out this summer recognizing St. Mary’s as one of the nation;s top universities. On August 17, U.S. News & World Report released its 2011 edition of “America’s Best Colleges” ranking St. Mary’s seventh in the West Region in the “Great Schools, Great Prices” and in the top 20 academically. The week of August 9th The Education Trust recognized St. Mary’s as one of the nation’s best for its high Hispanic and non-Hispanic student graduation rates; and Forbes’ list of “America’s Best Colleges” for 2011 named St. Mary’s in their top 610 schools nationally – placing us in the top seven percent of more than 6,600 accredited post-secondary institutions.

In July, PayScale.com reported that St. Mary’s graduates’ long-term earning potential is first among San Antonio colleges and universities and in the top 20 percent in the South. The School of Law was also included in the listing of “Best Value Law Schools” by preLaw magazine, one of only 11 private law schools in the nation to make the list of 60, and the only private law school in Texas to be included.

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