Our program has been noted in national publications as a top environmental studies program nationally, including:
March Madness Tournament for Environmental Studies, 2012
Colby College has been chosen as the “National Champion” of the first-ever March Madness Tournament for Environmental Studies, designed to reward excellence in environmental studies. Based on a collection of photo, essay, and video submissions, Colby, a school of 1800 students, was picked by a panel of expert judges in the field of environmental science, beating 15 other schools across the country, including Duke University, Purdue University, and UNC Asheville.
Colby Named Fourth Healthiest College, 2012 
Greatist went through a rigorous scoring process ranking these schools. They took nominations from our readers through social media and scoured the web for any mention of schools with exceptional food, fitness facilities, health services, health-related programming, and just plain old happy students. They then consulted student surveys from College Prowler and The Princeton Review to choose the 25 schools (from an original list of nearly 100) with the most satisfied students. From there, they scored each school individually on a 100-point scale that weighed food, fitness, health services, and programming equally. Their scale took into account everything from accessibility (i.e. price, hours, etc.) to innovativeness (turns out rock climbing walls are actually pretty common — who knew?) and paid special attention to the quality of those services. Go to Greatlist.
Fiske’s Top 10 Colleges for Environmental Education, 2011
“Here is a list of the top environmental colleges from the 2011 Fiske Guide to Colleges. This guide is published by former New York Times Education Editor Edward Fiske whose reviews include details on campus life and academics. Colby College – Located in picturesque small-town Maine, provides a gorgeous, and rigorous, setting to study the environment….”
Princeton Review’s Guide to 311 Green Colleges, 2011 Edition
The Princeton Review’s Guide to 311 Green Colleges: 2011 Edition profiles 308 institutions of higher education in the United States and three in Canada that demonstrate notable commitments to sustainability in their academic offerings, campus infrastructure, activities and career preparation.
America’s Coolest Schools, 2011
Colby was ranked in the top 13 of the Sierra Club Top Coolest Schools. Sierra magazine’s “Coolest Schools” ranking is open to all four-year undergraduate colleges and universities in the United States. In March 2011, Sierra sent a 12-page questionnaire to 940 schools, a list based on the widest collection of university contacts that the magazine’s researchers could amass; schools that requested a survey were provided one and encouraged to participate. Sierra received 118 complete responses from schools, which the magazine’s researchers scored and ranked.
Environmental Merit Award, United States Environmental Protection Agency, New England Region, 2004
Presented to faculty of the Colby Environmental Studies program, “For outstanding efforts in preserving New England’s Environment”.