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The (ACTA) has released its annual report on the curricular strength of American colleges and universities and, once again, ���ϲ����� is at the very top of the list.

On its website, ACTA has posted evaluations of the major public and private colleges and universities in all 50 states — over 1,100 four-year institutions, with more than 7.5 million undergraduate students among them. For the eighth time in as many years, ACTA ���ϲ����� a grade of “A” and a perfect rating.

By earning an “A,” ���ϲ����� rates among the top 2 percent of American colleges and universities, 25 schools in all, named to ACTA’s coveted “.” Moreover, the College is one of only four schools, or the top 0.4 percent nationwide, to earn a perfect score for the strength of its curriculum.

While numerous guides rank colleges and universities based on popularity or reputation, ACTA’s annual rating evaluates schools solely on the basis of their curricula. It focuses on the substance of schools’ mandatory courses and texts, or core curricula, identifying seven essential areas of study for undergraduates: composition, literature, U.S. government or history, foreign language (at an intermediate level), mathematics, natural science, and economics. The more of these areas of study required by a college or university, and the more substantive the curricula in these areas, the higher the school’s overall ACTA rating.

“We aim not at vocational training but at the education of the whole person, an education that will serve as an intellectual and moral foundation throughout our students’ lives,” says Dean of the College Brian T. Kelly. “As a result, our ‘core’ is our curriculum — an integrated, comprehensive, and Catholic education based entirely on the great books.”

The College’s unique academic program not only covers the seven key disciplines ACTA has identified, but orders them toward a rigorous study of philosophy and theology, culminating in the works of the Catholic Church’s Universal Doctor, St. Thomas Aquinas. “Ironically,” Dr. Kelly adds, “even though our classical education is not vocational in nature, it prepares our alumni to enter the best graduate schools in the country and to excel at a wide variety of professions, from law and medicine to journalism, public policy, architecture, and military service.”