Washington Monthly’s New System
The Washington Monthly ranking method is organized around three pillars: social mobility, research, and service.
The introduction from the publication notes that institutions enrolling low-income students and ensuring they graduate performed well in the ranking, as did those focusing on future scientists and service-minded values.
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Also included in the rankings are loan repayment information and student earnings years after enrolling. This is the biggest change in Washington Monthly‘s ranking methodology, notes Kevin Carey, who edits Washington Monthly‘s annual college guide. Carey also directs the Education Policy Program at the New America Foundation.
All of those changes caused much movement in the rankings, with once-mediocre schools moving up the list and others taking a steep dive. When compared to U.S. News and World Report‘s rankings, the differences are evident.
While 19 out of U.S. News‘ top 20 national university rankings are private schools, the majority of Washington Monthly‘s top 20 are public institutions, including University of California-San Diego, Texas A&M, and Utah State, schools that rate nowhere near the top at U.S. News.
While a few elite schools, such as Stanford and Harvard, top the Washington Monthly list, others under-perform. Columbia, Northwestern, and Washington University in St. Louis, which rank 4th, 12th, and 15th, respectively on the U.S. News list come in 24th, 40th, and 99th in the Washington Monthly list.
Berea College, ranked 67th on U.S. News‘ list of liberal arts colleges, comes in 1st in the Washington Monthly ranking.
The rankings “bring the central problem facing American higher education into even sharper focus. It is far too easy for colleges to garner undeserved reputations for excellence by hiking tuition, burdening students with loans, and spending the money on things that have little to do with educational excellence. Meanwhile, colleges that are authentically committed to service and social mobility get far too little recognition or reward,” Carey writes.
Access the rankings here and the methodology here.
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