The College Ranking That Measures More Than ROI

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A DIFFERENT KIND OF RANKING?

Washington Monthly launched its ranking in 2005 as an alternative to U.S. News & World Report. U.S. News  weighs a school’s reputation higher than almost any other metric and rewards schools with a lot of resources – like those with shiny new buildings, bloated administrations, and high-profile sports teams – rather than focusing on value or what happens in the classroom. 

That makes the U.S. News ranking ripe for manipulation, the Monthly says.

For example, more than 50 law and medical schools – including Yale and Harvard – announced that they would no longer provide data to U.S. News last fall and winter. Several well respected schools like Bard College and Columbia University then declared they would no longer participate in U.S. News’ undergraduate ranking, criticizing its focus on test scores, endowment sizes, and other measures that privilege the children of the elite over all other students, the magazine notes.

“It’s time to stop worshiping at the false altar of U.S. News and World Report,” said Education Secretary Miguel Cardona in a speech this past March. 

METHODOLOGY

Washington Monthly says it’s different because it uses publicly available data mostly collected by the federal government, and universities are less likely to cheat and lie when reporting to the feds. U.S. News’ metrics rely on university responses to its proprietary survey. 

Washington Monthly’s methodology starts with the 1,586 colleges listed in the U.S. Department of Education’s Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System. It ranks them based on three equally weighted categories: 

• Social mobility: Metrics include percentage of students receiving Pell Grants, enrolled in ROTC, and other social mobility programs; graduate rates, net price, and more.
• Research: Metrics include total research spending, the number of science and engineering PhDs awarded, number of undergraduate alumni who have gone on to receive a PhD and more. 
• Community and national service: This score was derived by looking at AmeriCorps and Peace Corps data, military service, students completing national service, and students receiving the Segal Award. 

A TALE OF TWO RANKINGS

While Washington Monthly’s ranking is topped by all the usual powerhouses – Harvard, Stanford, Columbia, etc., – several schools that did poorly on the U.S. News’ ranking fared much better on the Monthly’s list, the magazine notes.

Washington Monthly’s top 30 list includes 13 state schools while only six public universities make it onto the U.S. News’ top 30.

For example, California State University Fresno ranked No. 26 on the Monthly’s list, ahead of Dartmouth, Brown and the University of Chicago. But, it ranked No. 250 on U.S. News’ latest ranking. Florida International University, meanwhile, was No. 19 on the Monthly list but No. 151 on U.S. News.

The rankings, which appear in the magazine’s September/October issue, also ranks master’s universities, liberal arts and bachelor’s colleges.

The magazine also ranks the Best Bang for the Buck colleges for helping non wealthy students attain marketable degrees at affordable prices in five different geographic regions in the United States. The 15 highest Best Bang schools for each region are shown in the table below.

Results on the Best Bang for the Buck list are also very different from those in the U.S. News ranking.

For example, Governors State University in Illinois, is the second best school in the Midwest for helping students earn marketable degrees at affordable prices according to Washington Monthly. But, it ranked No. 127 on U.S. News’ Regional Universities Midwest ranking.

CUNY Lehman College – No. 5 on the Monthly’s Best Bang for the Buck Northeast Colleges ranking – is No. 81 on U.S. News’ Regional Universities North list.

And Grambling State University, a Louisiana HBCU, is No. 10 on the Monthly’s list for Southern Colleges but No. 99 among U.S. News’ Southern Universities.

“The Washington Monthly’s rankings highlight outcomes that are useful and relevant to students, the majority of whom are neither rich nor applying to highly selective schools. Rather than relying on easily-gamed proprietary surveys of colleges, as U.S. News does, the Monthly uses publicly available data to track whether institutions are committed to enrolling students of modest backgrounds, getting them through college, and helping them into upwardly mobile careers,” magazine editors write.

See Washington Monthly’s full ranking package here.

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