The US News & World Report ranking of the best schools in the country came out this week, and listed for the second year in a row was a small liberal arts Christian school in Purcellville called Patrick Henry College.
Situated right off Leesburg Pike, the college, founded in 2000, was ranked 107 overall in the nation, up a stunning 29 points from its first appearance on the list last year.
“We have some of the highest LSAT (Law School Admission Test) scores in the nation for kids entering law school,” said Patrick Henry spokesman Tom Ziemnick. “And that includes the Ivy League.”
Ziemnick said the law school’s moot court programs are considered the best in the nation, recently defeating Yale to claim its 14th win in the National Moot Court Championship, hosted by the American Moot Court Association.
“We’re sort of this best kept secret — an Alabama or Ohio State for football — we are that for moot court,” Ziemnick said. “No other college in the nation has more than two national championships.”
“So, it’s funny, in our gym, our banners aren’t for basketball, they’re for moot court national championships,” Ziemnick said.
Patrick Henry College is a private liberal arts school. The campus sits on 119 acres in Purcellville and has 425 undergraduate students.
Johns Hopkins University, Georgetown University, the University of Virginia and the University of Maryland at College Park still rank in the top 50 best national universities for the 2026 Best Colleges standings, which were released Tuesday.
Hopkins remained in the top 10, coming in at No. 7 in a four-way tie, down one slot from 2025, while Georgetown remained at No. 24, the same as last year.
Nationally, Princeton University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University came in first, second and third, respectively, in the overall National Universities category, just like last year.
The University of Maryland, College Park, rose two to No. 42 in a tie with the University of Washington, while the University of Virginia dropped two slots, coming in at No. 26 in the National Universities category.
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