CASTINE – Maine Maritime Academy has been listed among the nation’s top baccalaureate colleges in the northern region in the 2008 edition of U.S. News & World Report’s “America’s Best Colleges.”

The college has been ranked in the magazine’s annual college report, but this year was the first time it was included in Best Baccalaureate Colleges (by region), reflecting a change in the magazine’s methodology. MMA was ranked 14th overall in the listing of public and private colleges located in the North, a region that stretches from Maine to Maryland.

Within that list, two other public colleges were ranked ahead of MMA. The U.S. Coast Guard Academy in Connecticut was ranked second in the same category; the U.S. Maritime Academy in New York was ranked seventh. MMA was the top-ranking publicly funded state college in its category, according to the college’s press release.

The University of Maine at Farmington was the only other Maine school ranked in the top 30 in the baccalaureate category for the northern region. UMF was ranked 17th.

“As a small, public college on the coast of Maine, we’re pleased to be recognized within this evaluation,” said MMA President Leonard Tyler in a press release. “We’ve been recognized regularly within this publication in the past for excellence in undergraduate engineering, but our rank in this category attests to the efforts of our trustees, faculty and staff to provide an overall quality, accessible and affordable education for students.”

The rankings were published in the Aug. 27 issue of the magazine.