Washington Monthly - September/October 2012 - 28

NaTioNal UNiversiTies
rank in U.S. NewS (2012)

Top 30
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30.

UnivErsity oF CaliFornia–san DiEGo (Ca) 37 Texas A&M University (TX) 58 Stanford University (CA) 5 Univ. of North Carolina–Chapel Hill (NC) 29 University of California–Berkeley (CA) 21 University of California–Los Angeles (CA) 25 Case Western Reserve University (OH) 38 University of Washington–Seattle (WA) 42 University of California–Riverside (CA) 97 Georgia Institute of Technology–Main (GA) 36 Harvard University (MA) 1 Univ. of Texas–El Paso (TX) Rank not published University of Michigan–Ann Arbor (MI) 28 University of California–Santa Barbara (CA) 42 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MA) 5 University of Notre Dame (IN) 19 University of California–Davis (CA) 38 University of Wisconsin–Madison (WI) 42 Cornell University (NY) 15 Princeton University (NJ) 1 University of Florida (FL) 58 Univ. of Illinois–Urbana-Champaign (IL) 45 University of Texas–Austin (TX) 45 College of William and Mary (VA) 33 Tufts University (MA) 29 Duke University (NC) 10 University of Pennsylvania (PA) 5 University of Minnesota–Twin Cities (MN) 68 University of Chicago (IL) 5 Vanderbilt University (TN) 17

ing colleges by social mobility, research, and service produces surprising results. Some famous (and expensive) colleges that routinely top the U.S. News rankings fare poorly by our lights, while some far less costly institutions are providing huge benefits to their students and their nation. Here are highlights from the 2012 Washington Monthly college rankings.

Public Trust
When the U.S. News rankings were first published in the 1980s, some public universities ranked near the top. But over time, publics have been overtaken by private institutions working from a standard playbook: spend more, charge more, and cater almost exclusively to the rich and upperupper-middle class. Our national rankings, by contrast, are far more hospitable to what sometimes seems like an endangered species: accessible, affordable, high-quality public universities. The University of California, San Diego is, as in 2011, our top-ranked national university. Six of our top twenty universities hail from the UC system, a testament to their commitment to enroll an economically diverse student body while supporting world-class research. Tragically, the system has been rocked by budget cuts and price increases in recent years. We hope this trend is reversed before the UC campuses fade from prominence. Well-known private universities, by contrast, look different when judged by our criteria. Yale is only forty-first on our ranking. New York University, which has floated to national prominence on a sea of student debt, is seventyseventh. NYU ranked thirty-three places higher in 2011, but our new cost-adjustment measure penalizes it for being among the most expensive universities in America. Similarly, Northeastern University in Boston has climbed eighty-eight places in the U.S. News rankings since 2001, all the way to sixty-second, within shouting distance of the coveted “First Tier.” We rank Northeastern number 237, in the bottom 20 percent of all national universities. Why? Because Northeastern doesn’t enroll very many low-income students, graduates fewer students than it should, and is unusually expensive. Most national universities are better than Northeastern at graduating students who go on to earn PhDs, and the university’s faculty research awards and service statistics are mediocre. Universities that purchase a facade of greatness are recognized by U.S. News, but not by us.

And because the cost of higher education has become so crucial, we have added a new factor to our college rankings this year. The social mobility measure that rewards colleges with better-than-expected graduation rates has been improved to account for college prices. Colleges that are both effective and inexpensive get the highest marks. As Robert Kelchen and Rachel Fishman explain in more detail on page 31, some institutions are doing an outstanding job while keeping prices low at the same time, helping students earn valuable diplomas without being shackled by debt. The complete list of our national university rankings begins on page 54, liberal arts colleges on page 68, and master’s universities and baccalaureate colleges on page 80. Some of the names are familiar. But others show that rank28 September/October 2012

Liberal Values
Our ranking of liberal arts colleges also reveals institutions that stand out in unconventional ways. Bryn Mawr is ranked first this year, continuing a long tradition of women’s colleges serving their country. Berea College in Kentucky is ranked third, far above its U.S. News position, because it enrolls a predominantly low-income student population and charges no tuition. Most colleges with 90 percent of students eligible for
Washington Monthly - September/October 2012

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