WEST POINT – The U.S. Military Academy at West Point has been named U.S. News and World Report announced their 2009 America’s Best Colleges Rankings today and ranked West Point the “Top Public Liberal Arts College.”

The Academy also was named the fifth-best “Undergraduate Engineering Program” ahead of both Navy (tied for sixth) and the U.S. Air Force Academy (tied for eighth).  Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, Ind., was tops, followed by Harvey Mudd College, Calif., Cooper Union, N.Y., and Cal Poly – San Luis Obispo.

The engineering rankings are based solely on a spring 2008 peer survey of deans and senior faculty that asked them to rate each program they are familiar with on a scale of 1 (marginal) to 5 (distinguished). West Point’s average was 3.9.

Out of 265 liberal arts colleges that U.S. News categorized as awarding more than half of their degrees in the arts and sciences, West Point tied with Harvey Mudd College and Grinnell College, Iowa, as the 14th-best Liberal Arts College overall, when combining both private and public colleges.

Last week, Forbes.com, America’s Best Colleges, ranked West Point the “best public college” and sixth best in American colleges on the quality of education.