HWS News
5 September 2019 • Service HWS No. 2 in Nation for Service
Hobart and William Smith Colleges remain one of the nations leading higher education institutions for service, according to Washington Monthly's 2019 College Guide and Rankings. Since 2005, the policy magazine has rated U.S. colleges and universities based on their contributions to society, taking into consideration social mobility, research and service.
This years No. 2 ranking follows two consecutive years during which HWS occupied the top spot.
The service category rankings are calculated according to HWS alum service in the Peace Corps; institutional participation in the AmeriCorps Matching Program and in Tufts University's National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement; and the allocation of Federal Work-Study grant funds toward community service programs.
Among liberal arts colleges overall, HWS ranks 46thon the Washington Monthly list, surpassing peer institutions such as Kenyon College, Gettysburg College and Dickinson College. In addition to service, criteria for the overall ranking include social mobility, which factors in graduation rates, financial data and student body diversity, and research, which includes Ph.D. completion rates among graduates and institutional research spending.
Read the full rankings and methodology.
HWS students volunteer more than 80,000 hours annually in local, national and international communities, and generate more than $100,000 in fundraising efforts for non-profit organizations. In 2011, the Colleges spearheaded Geneva 2020, a collective impact initiative to harness the resources of the entire Geneva community in support of education for Geneva's children, which has become an important component to HWS overall partnership with the City. In 2014, Hobart and William Smith were recognized as one of only four institutions to be named to the President's Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll.
The Washington Monthly rankings follow several other national accolades. Second in the nation for impact and third for study abroad, the Colleges are also listed among the top 20 in the nation in categories spanning faculty, alums and politically active students, according to the 2020 edition of The Princeton Review's Best 385 Colleges.
The Colleges rank third among small schools on the Peace Corps' 2019 list of Top Volunteer-Producing Colleges and Universities. In their 2019 rankings, both Money magazine and the Washington, D.C.-based financial and business publisher Kiplinger lauded HWS among the nation's top colleges and universities for their value.
