Newsweek magazine has ranked Pomona College as the nation’s second most desirable small school, beat out only by Cooper Union in New York City.

The ranking was part of a college ranking series by Newsweek that contained various divisions for different sizes of schools, types of school locations and attributes such as diversity and athletic prowess. Pomona was ranked the eleventh most desirable school overall, fourth most desirable suburban school, fifth most academically rigorous school with terrific weather, thirteenth most gay-friendly school, fifteenth best school for “braniacs,” and twentieth most diverse school.

In its description of Pomona, Newsweek noted the College’s small size, seven-to-one student-to-faculty ratio, low acceptance rate and proximity to the Pacific Ocean, Mojave Desert, San Gabriel Mountains and Los Angeles. The magazine also mentioned the College’s equal gender breakdown, gay-friendly atmosphere and racially, geographically and socioeconomically diverse student body.

“Someone finally got it right,” Pomona College President David Oxtoby joked. “We came out ahead of Amherst and Williams and Swarthmore.”

However, Oxtoby said he hesitates to celebrate Pomona’s success in these rankings too much, as he knows they are based on formulas and polling that may often be innacurate and do not offer a holistic picture of the school.

“It sells magazines,” he said.

Oxtoby also said he feels Pomona is consistently underrated in the U.S. News and World Report college rankings, possibly because Pomona is located so far away from the Northeast, where most of the elite liberal arts colleges are.

However, Oxtoby said, “It creates some interesting discussion…It’s good to compare ourselves.”