The Best Colleges and Universities in the Mid-Atlantic

How the region's higher education institutions stack up against the rest of the country and each other

Nassau Hall on the campus of Princeton University (Princeton, NJ) - the #1 ranked university in the country
Photo Credit: Flickr user schizoform

Last week, US News & World Report released the 2015 edition of its annual rankings of the nation's colleges and universities. The Mid-Atlantic had a pretty impressive showing. being home to 7 out of the top 25 'national universities' and 7 out of the top 25 'national liberal arts colleges.' The nation's top-ranked national university, Princeton University, is also located in the Mid-Atlantic. Below are excerpts of the more popular rankings to give a better idea of how the region's schools stacks up against others across the country.

2015 'National University' Rankings (Mid-Atlantic schools in bold)

Rank	School Name	Location
1.	Princeton University	Princeton, NJ
2.	Harvard University	Cambridge, MA
3.	Yale University	New Haven, CT
4. (tie)	Columbia University	New York, NY
4. (tie)	Stanford University	Stanford, CA
4. (tie)	University of Chicago	Chicago, IL
7.	Massachusetts Insitute of Technology	Cambridge, MA
8. (tie)	Duke University	Durham, NC
8. (tie)	University of Pennsylvania	Philadelphia, PA
10.	California Institute of Technology	Pasadena, CA
11.	Dartmouth College	Hanover, NH
12.	Johns Hopkins University	Baltimore, MD
13.	Northwestern University	Evanston, IL
14.	Washington University in St. Louis	St. Louis, MO
15.	Cornell University	Ithaca, NY
16. (tie)	Brown University	Providence, RI
16. (tie)	University of Notre Dame	Notre Dame, IN
16. (tie)	Vanderbilt University	Nashville, TN
19.	Rice University	Houston, TX
20.	University of California—​Berkeley	Berkeley, CA
21. (tie)	Emory University	Atlanta, GA
21. (tie)	Georgetown University	Washington, D.C.
23. (tie)	University of California—​Los Angeles	Los Angeles, CA
23. (tie)	University of Virginia	Charlottesville, VA
25. (tie)	Carnegie Mellon University	Pittsburgh, PA
25. (tie)	University of Southern California	Los Angeles, CA

Gilman Hall, Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore, MD) - 12th ranked national university
Photo Credit: Flickr user clio1789

The seven Mid-Atlantic schools in the top 25 'National Liberal Arts Colleges:'

Rank	School Name	Location
3.	Swarthmore College	Swarthmore, PA
8. (tie)	Haverford College	Haverford, PA
11.	Vassar College	Poughkeepsie, NY
13.	United States Naval Academy	Annapolis, MD
15. (tie)	Hamilton College	Clinton, NY
22.	Colgate University	Hamilton, NY
24.	United States Military Academy	West Point, NY

Amtrak's New Northeast Corridor Workhorse

Siemens ACS-64 #600 at Sacramento Manufacturing Facility May 2013
Photo Credit: Siemens/Amtrak (for all images unless otherwise specified)

Last week Friday (Feb. 7) Amtrak's newest fleet member completed its inaugural run on the the busy Northeast Corridor line on Northeast Regional #171 from Boston South Station to Union Station, Washington D.C. The brand new Siemens ACS-64 (ACS stands for "American Cities Sprinter") electric locomotive at the head end of the train is the first of 70 of the type to be delivered to Amtrak over a period of roughly two years. The locomotives, which are assembled by Siemens in Sacramento, CA to satisfy the "Buy America" requirement for federal funding, will be delivered at a rate of approximately three per month, with the final units arriving sometime next year. 

ACS-64 engineer's compartment

In addition to eventually powering all Northeast Regional and long-distance trains on the Northeast Corridor (NEC) (which serves Washington D.C., Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, Boston, and points in between), the new locomotives will also operate on the Keystone Corridor branch line between Philadelphia and Harrisburg, PA. 

The incoming locomotive units will replace the 20 EMD AEM-7 (DC), 29 EMD AEM-7 (AC), and 15 Bombardier/Alstom HHP-8 electric locomotives currently powering trains on the NEC, most having over 3.5 million miles on them. The Swedish-designed AEM-7 locomotives (nicknamed "toasters" and originally all DC units) were delivered to Amtrak between 1978 and 1988. Between 1999 and 2002, 29 of these locomotives were upgraded by Amtrak and Alstom  to "AC" units with greater amount of horsepower allowing them to haul longer trains. 

The Growing Metropoltan Areas of the Mid-Atlantic

The Mid-Atlantic from Space
From upper L to R: Washington D.C., Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York. 
(Richmond and Hampton Roads in VA are also partially visible at the far left and lower left parts of the photo respectively)
Image Courtesy of NASA Johnson Space Center

The  Northeast is one of the most populous and most densely populated regions in the United States. This past spring, the Census Bureau released its 2012 population estimates for the nation's metropolitan areas. The estimated population for the largest combined metropolitan areas (CSA's*) in the Northeast was 50,475,854, or approximately 16% of the U.S. population. The Mid-Atlantic accounts for a significant portion of that total, with a population of 39,823,114 in its three major combined metro areas (New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore-Washington D.C.). A table with the 2012 populations of the largest individual metro areas (MSAs) in the region is posted after the break: