The 25 Most Desirable Small Schools

Amherst, No. 5 on Newsweek's list of most desirable small schools, can offer students a lot of individualized attention. With a faculty-to-student ratio of 1:8, this private liberal arts school in New England boasts an average class size of 16. In fact, 90 percent of Amherst courses have fewer than 30 students. "We believe in teaching as conversation because the best teaching is conversation," Tom Gerety, the president of Amherst from 1994-2003, once said.
 
Situated on a scenic 1,000-acre campus near the center of the town of Amherst, Massachusetts, the college also made the top 3 in Newsweek's list of most desirable rural schools. Indeed, Amherst comes in as the 17th most desirable school overall. Along with Wesleyan University and Williams College, Amherst College is part of the "Little Three," the small-liberal-arts-school version of the "Big Three" that consists of Harvard, Princeton and Yale.
 
Despite its small size (roughly 1,700 undergraduates total), Amherst boasts many accomplished alumni, including U.S. President Calvin Coolidge and Supreme Court Chief Justice Harlan Fiske Stone, which lands the school the 20th rank in Newsweek's list for future power brokers and 11th for brainiacs. And the $48,400 in comprehensive fees that students paid in the 2009-2010 school year just might turn out to be a good financial investment: Amherst has also produced two billionaires.