The D.C.-based non-profit magazine ranks schools based on social mobility, research, and service.
“We rank four-year colleges in America on three measures that would make the whole system better,” wrote the editors of Washington Monthly. “The first is upward mobility: Are schools enrolling and graduating students of modest means and charging them a reasonable price? The second is research: Are they preparing undergraduates to earn PhDs, and creating the new technologies and ideas that will drive economic growth and advance human knowledge? The third is service: Are schools encouraging their students to give back to the country by joining the military or the Peace Corps?”
The rankings are drawn from 1,727 colleges that are listed in the U.S. Department of Education’s Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System and meet the following criteria: Have a Carnegie basic classification of research, master’s, baccalaureate, and baccalaureate/associate’s colleges; are not exclusively graduate schools; and participate in federal financial aid programs.
Washington Monthly's methods yielded striking results: Harvard and Stanford are the only two "elite private" universities to make the national top 10.
Humboldt State joins CSU Fresno, CSU Los Angeles, CSU Dominguez Hills and Mills College as the only California schools to rank in the top 20 on the guide’s list of master’s degree institutions.
The guide comes at a time when many students are starting their college application process, and at an important political moment as well.
"Millennials and their parents are furious over the ever-rising price of college," said Paul Glastris, editor of Washington Monthly. "So it is no surprise that higher education is becoming a hot-button issue of the 2016 campaign season, with presidential candidates offering plans for 'debt free' and ‘tuition free' college."
The complete 2015 college rankings and feature stories can be found "here."http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/college_guide/toc_2015.php