Top Performers on Social Mobility (US News)

These are the colleges, based on U.S. News’ rankings of colleges, most likely to help lower income students advance to higher socio-economic levels. “Economically disadvantaged students are less likely than others to finish college, even when controlling for their achievement in high school. But some colleges are more successful than others at advancing social mobility by enrolling and graduating large proportions of disadvantaged students awarded with Pell Grants. The vast majority of these federal grants are awarded to students whose adjusted gross family incomes are under $50,000. The following schools performed best on U.S. News’ social mobility ranking factors, which are solely based on the two Pell Grant indicators (see below).

Of the top 20 universities for social mobility, California has the most at 7 (and they have many more in the top 50), New Jersey has 3, and New York, and Florida each have 2 universities. This leaves 1 in D.C., Illinois, North Carolina, Indiana, Georgia, and Texas.

1. Florida International U.
2. U. of California Riverside
3. Cal. State U. Long Beach
4. U. of California Merced
5. Oakland City University (Indiana, not Calif.) (#1 private)
6. Rutgers U. Newark (New Jersey)
7. Cal. State U. Fullerton
8. U. of La Verne (Calif.) (#2 private)
9. U. of California Irvine
10. CUNY (City University of New York) City College
11. U. of Illinois Chicago
12. Cal. State U. San Bernandino
13. Howard U. (D.C.) (#3 private) (#1 HBCU)
14. Montclair State U. (New Jersey)
15. Georgia State U.
16. Rutgers U. Camden (New Jersey)
17. SUNY (State University of New York) Stony Brook
18. U. of North Carolina Greensboro
19. U. of St. Thomas (Houston, TX) (#4 private)
20. Florida A&M U. (#2 HBCU)

On the flip side, the following 20 colleges are rated the worst for social mobility of their students. Texas is represented by 3 private colleges, and North Dakota by 3 universities. Three SEC (Power 4 Football Conference) schools are considered in the bottom 20 for social mobility (Alabama, Arkansas, & Mississippi) and 3 more SEC schools are in the bottom 30 (Kentucky, LSU, and Auburn).

1. U. of Alaska Fairbanks
2. Wilmington U. (Delaware)
3. U. of Wyoming
4. U. of North Dakota
5. U. of Mary (North Dakota)
6. U. of Kansas
7. U. of Alabama
8. U. of Arkansas
9. Dallas Baptist U. (TX)
10. Xavier U. (Ohio)
11. U. of Montana
12. U. of Mississippi
13. U. of Alabama Huntsville
14. U. of Akron (OH)
15. James Madison U. (VA)
16. Hardin-Simmons U. (TX)
17. Abilene Christian U. (TX
18. Wright State U. (OH)
19. North Dakota State U.
20. Missouri U. of Science & Tech.

Social mobility assesses how well schools graduated economically disadvantaged students. The ranking factors were computed by aggregating two distinct ranking factors assessing graduation rates of students who were awarded Pell Grants.

• Pell graduation rates: This is a four-year rolling average that incorporates six-year bachelor’s degree-seeking graduation rates of Pell Grant students from the fall 2014 through fall 2017 entering classes, adjusted to give much more credit to schools with larger Pell student proportions.
• Pell graduation performance: This compares each school’s six-year bachelor’s degree-seeking graduation rate among Pell Grant recipients with its six-year graduation rates among non-Pell recipients, then adjusts to give significantly more credit to schools who enrolled larger Pell student proportions. The higher a school’s Pell graduation rate relative to its non-Pell graduation rate up to the rates being equal, the better it scores. This, too, is computed as a four-year rolling average from the fall 2014 through fall 2017 entering classes.