The 2007 edition of U.S.News & World Report’s “America’s Best Liberal Arts Colleges” has ranked Sweet Briar College in the top 100 liberal arts colleges in the nation. Sweet Briar is categorized in the same national tier with Washington and Lee University and the University of Richmond, the only two Virginia liberal arts colleges with a higher ranking. SBC also ranked first among the state’s women’s colleges.

Colleges are scored on a variety of criteria such as the average freshman retention rate, the annual graduation rate, and the college’s acceptance rate. Sweet Briar also was ranked seventh in the category of highest proportion of classes with fewer than 20 students at 91 percent.