WASHINGTON, Aug. 26,
2024 /PRNewswire/ -- While much of the media
convulses over politics on our nation's most elite campuses, the
Washington Monthly today releases innovative new rankings
that shine a spotlight on a different class of schools, ones that
produce the greatest share of four-year degrees and actually serve
everyday Americans: regional public universities.
Washington Monthly's Paul Glastris says "hundreds of great schools...
[are] achieving the real purpose of college."
These are the schools with "State" in the name, unknown to much
of the country but revered in their communities. U.S. News &
World Report lists only three regional public schools among its
top 100 national universities; 16 make it into the Washington
Monthly's top 100, including Fresno
State (#22), Florida Atlantic
University (#41), and Montclair
State (#57). Whereas news in the past year has focused on
Gaza protests and DEI drama at
elite universities, the Monthly's rankings focus on
schools that help non-wealthy students get ahead in life while
serving their country and communities.
Since 2005, the Washington Monthly has presented an
alternative set of benchmarks for what "excellence" is in higher
education, ones that measure what colleges do for their country,
instead of for themselves. Rather than reward institutions for
their wealth, fame, and exclusivity, the Monthly evaluates
them on their commitment to three goals: social mobility, research,
and public service.
That methodology leads to notable differences from the U.S.
News rankings among national universities:
- Florida International University,
#16 on the Monthly list, is #124 in the U.S. News
rankings.
- Utah State University, #54 on the
Monthly list, is #269 in the U.S.
News rankings.
- Tulane University, #429 on
the Monthly list, is #73 in the U.S.
News rankings.
- Baylor University, #363 in
the Monthly list, is #93 in the U.S.
News rankings.
Regional universities also dominate the upper echelons, and
elite schools the lowest, in an innovative new ranking the
Monthly is unveiling, "America's Best and Worst Colleges
for Master's Degrees." This new list—the first ever to compare
median debt to median income five years after graduation for
popular master's programs—reveals that some of the best-known
universities in the country are offering grad students the worst
deals. A master's degree in nursing from Yale, for instance, will leave you
$118,849 in debt, on average, whereas
you'll borrow only $23,302 for the
same degree from the University of
Texas Rio Grande Valley and earn slightly more five years
later ($133,871 versus $128,563 for Yalies). Information like this can't
be found on U.S. News's popular "Best Graduate Schools"
guide, because that ranking mostly ignores how much programs cost
or how much debt students tend to graduate with, relying instead on
an insider survey measuring prestige.
The magazine also debuts another first-of-its-kind ranking,
"America's Best and Worst Colleges for Women in STEM," which
rates undergraduate STEM programs by the percentage of their
graduates who are women. Some of the nation's most selective
universities produce huge percentages of female scientists and
engineers, which undermines the ready-made excuses other schools
give for their low percentages, including that women lack interest
or ability.
The Monthly's college guide features a "Best Bang for
the Buck" ranking of colleges in each region, rewarding schools
that help students from all economic backgrounds attain degrees
that will serve them well in life without breaking the bank.
Schools like those in the Cal State
system (Los Angeles, Dominguez Hills, Stanislaus), Berea College, and Governors
State University top these rankings despite being ignored or
underappreciated by other magazines' lists.
On other Washington Monthly rankings this year, regional
publics also dominate. Elizabeth City
State, a historically Black university in North Carolina, is #4 among the best
bachelor's universities, and SUNY
Geneseo is the top master's school.
The 2024 college guide also includes feature stories that
investigate:
- How regional colleges provide states with exceptional return on
taxpayer dollars. Whereas graduates of flagship universities often
leave for jobs in distant cities, those of regional universities
typically settle down and build careers within the state. Yet
regionals receive far less government funding.
- Why the teaching is better at regional universities than at
highly selective schools, and how to make all college professors
better at their most important job.
- How elite colleges, such as Northwestern
University, leverage their brand name to sign up students
for master's degrees with astronomical debt and low career
earnings—and why the federal government does nothing to stop
it.
- How Northern Arizona University's
visionary new president has earned national acclaim for promoting
social mobility over the pursuit of prestige.
- How to turn "remedial education" from a dead end to a launchpad
of success.
"Washington's obsession with
elite colleges is warping our politics by aggravating the large and
growing political divide between those with a college education and
those without," warns Washington Monthly editor in chief
Paul Glastris. "In the past year,
higher ed has dealt with tone-deaf college presidents, threats from
Project 2025, the defunding of DEI offices, and the unpredictable
politics of student loan forgiveness. But as the Washington
Monthly's 2024 college guide and rankings show, there are
hundreds of great schools out there, many of them regional public
universities, that are achieving the real purpose of college:
helping students of modest means earn affordable degrees that lead
to good incomes and encouraging them to be informed and active
citizens of our democracy."
The Washington Monthly is a nonprofit devoted to
ahead-of-the-curve coverage of politics, government, and public
affairs. Its college guide, first published in 2005, has won the
Education Writers Association Award for data journalism. Founded in
1969, the Monthly has trained and published many of the
biggest names in journalism, including Jon
Meacham, Nicholas Lemann,
Katherine Boo, and Nicholas
Confessore.
MEDIA CONTACT:
Adam Shapiro
Adam.Shapiro@ASPR.bz
202-427-3603
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SOURCE Washington Monthly