Earns Top Spot in U.S. News & World Report Best Public Colleges Rankings, Ranked Nationally as a Top 25 "Best Value" college by Forbes

(VALLEJO, Calif. – September 12, 2012) – CSU, California Maritime Academy once again received high marks in the 2012 college rankings compiled by U.S. News and World Report and Forbes. Released today, U.S. News & World Report ranked Cal Maritime as the No. 1 public college in the west in its annual Best Colleges report, and No. 2 among all undergraduate colleges in the west.

The U.S. News and World Report rankings comes on the heels of the Forbes America's Top Colleges report, which placed Cal Maritime in the Top 25 Best Buy Colleges, which highlights the colleges and universities in the nation that provide students with the best bang for their educational buck. Forbes Best Buy Colleges are calculated by taking the college's overall quality rank on Forbes annual list of America's Top Colleges and dividing that number by the school's tuition and additional fees. The magazine's quality rank assesses each school in the areas of teaching, career prospects, graduation rates and the levels of debt graduates tend to amass.

"Both the U.S. News and World Report and Forbes rankings are a testament to the collaborative efforts of our dedicated and talented faculty, staff, and students," said Cal Maritime president Thomas A. Cropper. "These rankings recognize the hard work of our entire campus community over many challenging years, and I want to thank each of them for their many contributions that made this national recognition possible."

Cropper added that the rankings are most useful as a measure of educational value over time, and as an independent confirmation of the high quality of the university and its programs.

Established in 1929, Cal Maritime is the only degree-granting maritime academy on the West Coast. The campus serves approximately 900 students from California and the western region, including the Pacific Rim. In addition to a master's degree in transportation and engineering management, Cal Maritime offers undergraduate degrees preparing students for careers in engineering, transportation, international relations, business, and global logistics.