The University of Maine at Farmington has been recognized as the top Maine college and number 14 out of 400 nationally in Washington Monthly’s 2015 “Best Bang for the Buck” rankings, the college announced Friday.

The rankings were of more than 400 public and private colleges in the Northeast in Washington Monthly’s “The Other College Guide: A Roadmap for the Right School for You.”

The top “Best Bang for the Buck” school in this year’s guide was CUNY Bernard M. Baruch College in New York.

The next Maine college in the national rankings is The College of the Atlantic. The Bar Harbor school is ranked 48. Other Maine colleges in the top 100 include Colby College in Waterville at 55, the University of Maine at 93 and Husson University in Bangor at 97.

UMF was also recognized in the magazine’s college guide for its contribution to the public good, ranking 52 out of nearly 350 baccalaureate colleges around the U.S., according to a UMF news release. The ranking is based on “helping low-income students attend and graduate from college, producing cutting-edge scholarship and encouraging students to give back to their country,” according to the release.

The rankings are based on the three most recent years of data, the release said, and UMF, a liberal arts college that enrolls about 1,800 full-time students, has been ranked in the guide every eyear since 2010. Annual net price for students to attend is $13,388 a year, with students with an annual family income below $30,000 paying a net of $13,156; students whose family income is between $30,000 and $75,000 pay a net of $15,869 and students with a net family income above $75,000 pay $18,905, according to Washington Monthly’s ranking chart.

Washington Monthly compares more than 1,500 colleges in five geographic regions throughout the U.S. and ranks them on best value based on “net” price, graduation rate and students’ post-graduate earning ability to pay off their student loans, according to its website.

“We are thrilled by this recognition,” said Kathryn A. Foster, UMF president in the release. “As a premier public liberal arts college, UMF provides a quality, affordable education from curriculum through career. Many of our students are the first in their families to attend college and we offer a highly-personalized educational experience that helps them be successful on every level.”

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