College Rankings That Aren't Ridiculous: Washington Monthly

We here at HuffPost College know that college rankings can get a bit... repetitive. Sure, sometimes Stanford and Yale switch places in the top ten of any given ranking, but it's basically all the same.

Washington Monthly, however, takes a different tack when ranking America's bastions of higher education. As they explain:

Conventional rankings like those published by U.S. News & World Report are designed to show what colleges can do for you. Since 2005, our rankings have posed a different question: What are colleges doing for the country? Higher education, after all, isn’t just important for undergraduates. We all benefit when colleges produce groundbreaking research that drives economic growth, when they offer students from low-income families the path to a better life, and when they shape the character of future leaders. And we all pay for it, through hundreds of billions of dollars in public subsidies. Everyone has a stake in how that money is spent.

That’s why one-third of each college’s score on our rankings is based on social mobility: How committed are they to enrolling low-income students and helping them earn degrees? Our second category looks at research production and success at sending undergraduates on to PhDs. Finally, we give great weight to service. It’s not enough to help students look out for themselves. The best colleges encourage students to give something back.

See below for Washington Monthly's top 13 national universities, and click here for the full list. What do you think of these rankings? Revolutionary or off-the-mark? Weigh in below.

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University of California-San Diego

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Comments

[Moravecglobal]

08:14 PM on 10/18/2011

Californians second class applicants at University of California. Chancellor Robert J Birgeneau ($500,000 salary) displaces Californians qualified for public university education at Cal. for a $50,600 payment and a foreign passport. Need for transparency at University of California Berkeley has never been so clear.

UC Berkeley, ranked # 70 Forbes, is not increasing enrollment. Birgeneau accepts $50,600 FOREIGN students at the expense of qualified Californians.

UC Regent Chairwoman Lansing and President Yudof agree to discriminate against instate Californians for foreigners. Birgeneau, Yudof, Lansing need to answer to Californians.

Opinions make a difference; email UC Board of Regents [e-mail]

[George Global]

11:52 PM on 09/05/2011

This list'll be awfully vacant after California falls into the sea...

[rh654]

02:05 PM on 09/02/2011

I just saw UC San Diego on another list this website of Universities that weren't good.

[sf girl]

06:19 PM on 09/01/2011

Glad to see California schools so well represented.

[Michael R Reed]

03:13 PM on 08/31/2011

Is it just me? or does this list seem to tilt on California?

[ricchh]

09:34 AM on 08/31/2011

Yes, this is ridiculous.

[JudgeCCrater]

01:47 PM on 08/30/2011

Someone should cross-reference this list with the affordability of these institutions. That would alter these rankings drastically. Those of us who aren't interested in getting a second mortgage to send our kids to school would be very interested. And I'm speaking as someone who has healthy 529's set up for my kids.

[Graczyk]

08:19 AM on 08/30/2011

Californication much?

[Reikoku Jaken]

01:50 AM on 08/30/2011

Because moving from sub-minimum wage to $12 per hour will make the world a better and more balanced place for all of us to live in. Except that given current competitiveness in employment...naw.

Lets look at just a single basic norm. Most of the schools in these rankings aren't LAS by a long-reach. A large portion of their undergraduate body is made up of transfer and international students who are majoring in things such as engineering, physics, bio-tech, information technology and various other fields which provide decent starting salaries. The statistical shift from $0.10 per hour to $20 per hour provide for impressive "social betterment" margins. However, they do not provide for a student body capable of solving existing problems.

Hate to be cynical, but it sounds like a huge P.R. campaign to me.
Next.

[myrmidon568]

12:59 AM on 08/30/2011

In truth this is just an attempt by the University of California to fix Budget shortfalls and keep instate tuition low

[booksnmoreforyou]

12:19 AM on 08/30/2011

These are good. The others are too. Different emphases.

[TRhett]

11:32 PM on 08/29/2011

Looks pretty much the same to me . . . with a shift toward the west coast (although one of my company's biggest clients is The Regents of The University of California System - so I suppose I should be thankful) - and with Jackson State replacing Yale (what's with the Yale bashing lately - did I miss something?)

[113]

09:23 PM on 08/29/2011

I'm sensing a pattern here. Cali much?

[holligolightly1]

09:32 PM on 08/29/2011

HAHA! Thought the same.....

[ackezzy]

09:19 PM on 08/29/2011

moral of the story...go to college in california

[JudgeCCrater]

10:49 AM on 08/30/2011

...make sure your parents get that second mortgage if that's your choice.

[ackezzy]

12:36 PM on 08/30/2011

in a couple years thats going to be a requiremnet to go to school anywhere

[macroelpis]

10:12 PM on 09/16/2011

UC schools are the best deal in higher education

[Larry Rothfield]

06:46 PM on 08/29/2011

It seems rather odd to credit colleges for ROTC participation, since surely such participation owes much more to one's regional or family background than to anything the institution does. It also seems odd to be assuming that only science counts as research -- whatever happened to the humanities and social sciences?

[pleasantlyvague]

10:50 AM on 08/30/2011

I've found the social sciences are getting dismissed more and more lately. Apparently the only thing we're good for is telling politicians how to win elections and advising companies on marketing trends. Anything done for any intellectual gain or benefit to the workings of society... meh.

Too bad, really.