Washington Monthly - September/October 2021 - 43

AMERICA'S BEST
BANG FOR THE
BUCK COLLEGES
Our one-of-a-kind list of schools that help
non-wealthy students attain marketable
degrees at affordable prices.
By Robert Kelchen
T
he impact of the coronavirus pandemic on students and
colleges will be felt for a generation to come. Many colleges
lost much of their financial reserves as campuses
emptied out for months and students returned under expensive
social distancing and sanitizing protocols. Lower-income
families were hit harder by the pandemic. Many less wealthy
Americans lost their jobs, and many lost their lives, especially
if they were blue-collar employees who could not work from
home. Finally, enrollment fell sharply over the past year, with
the largest declines among racial minorities, lower-income
students, and men.
These factors have made it more important than ever for
colleges to demonstrate their value to students and society as a
whole. For the 10th year, we produced a ranking of Best Bang
for the Buck colleges, which is laser focused on showing which
colleges do a good job promoting social mobility-and which
don't. The rankings are broken down by region, beginning on
page 44. (We used the same data and methodology to create the
social mobility portion of the main rankings, which begin on
page 54; the methodology is explained on page 96.)
The Best Bang for the Buck colleges across each of the five
regions are primarily the unsung heroes of American higher
education: colleges with strong regional reputations that serve
large numbers of students from low-income families and help
them graduate and succeed in the labor market. A few of America's
wealthiest colleges also make appearances near the top
of the lists, but many colleges with billion-dollar endowments
lag far behind. In the Northeast, the Massachusetts Maritime
Academy takes top billing, followed by the City University of
New York's Baruch College, MIT, and Rutgers-Newark. RutgersNewark
graduates 71 percent of its students and enrolls far
more Pell Grant recipients than expected. Its students are able
to start quickly repaying their loans.
In the South and Midwest, Berea College and College of
the Ozarks maintain their top rankings thanks to their economic
diversity, relatively strong graduation rates, and commitment
to meeting students' financial need. The University of
Illinois and Texas A&M flagship campuses are second in their
respective regions and both graduate more than 1,000 Pell recipients
each year. Vanderbilt, Rice, and Northwestern all appear
in the top 10 due to strong outcomes for the modest number
of lower-income students they serve.
In the Southeast, the University of South Florida's Sarasota-Manatee
campus edges out the University of Florida and
James Madison University for top billing, with Appalachian
State University aptly representing regional public universities.
Out west, the California State University system tightened its
grip on the top of the rankings, grabbing seven of the top 10
spots and 18 of the top 30 positions. When net prices are generally
below $10,000 per year, students make strong progress
repaying their loans, and students graduate at high rates across
the system, it is hard for other universities to compete.
We only display the top 50 colleges in print. Online, we
list the full 200-plus colleges per region. Toward the bottom
of those rankings, we find a mix of middling public and private
nonprofit colleges along with a number of for-profit college
chains. Here at the Monthly, we like to shine the spotlight
on colleges with the resources to do better. Take, for example,
Tulane University, which ranked 205 among 211 colleges in the
South despite an endowment of nearly $1.5 billion. While much
of a university's endowment is restricted to be used for purposes
stated by donors, Tulane still has enough money floating
around to improve.
Robert Kelchen, a professor of education at the University of Tennessee,
Knoxville, is data manager of the Washington Monthly College Guide.
Washington Monthly 43
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