Campus Notes

Thomas Aquinas College in California is one of The Most Popular Liberal Arts Colleges in the United States, according to the latest rankings from U.S. News & World Report.

In its 2012 survey, the newsweekly found that 69.1 percent of the applicants admitted to the 4-year, Catholic college go on to enroll as freshmen in the fall — the seventh highest “yield” rate in the country.

“Yield” is a key way of measuring an institution’s desirability among applicants and besides being the only Catholic college on the list, Thomas Aquinas’ yield rate measures favorably against national universities, exceeding those of institutions such as Yale, MIT, and Princeton.

“This high rate,” says Thomas Aquinas College Director of Admissions Jon Daly, “is evidence that our unique program of Catholic liberal education has broad appeal. The decision about where to spend the next four years of their lives is one that most students do not make lightly. That those of our applicants who are admitted overwhelmingly choose to come here shows a real commitment on their part to classical education taught under the light of faith.”

But the college doesn’t just attract students. It retains them. Its retention and graduation rates are extraordinarily high with about 92 percent of Thomas Aquinas College freshmen returning as sophomores. That number compares favorably to a 76 percent nationwide average. Furthermore, 73 percent complete the program within six years (as opposed to 55.5 percent nationally).

The school attributes their success partly to their High School Summer Great Books Program which invites high-schoolers to discover first hand what college is actually like. In the program held each summer for two weeks, high school students from around the country join members of the teaching faculty on campus for spirited conversation, engaging firsthand with some of the best minds of the past 2,500 years in Plato, Shakespeare, and St. Thomas Aquinas.

A short video below has more details on the summer program.

For more information about Thomas Aquinas College, please visit the college’s website.

For more information about their High School Summer Great Books Program, please click here.