Rankings Recognize Impact on Social Mobility

New rankings out this month highlight UW Tacoma’s ability to help non-wealthy students get marketable degrees at affordable prices.

Washington Monthly released its 2020 college guide and rankings, which the publication calls “the socially conscious alternative to U.S. News and World Report.” UW Tacoma is #2 in the West, out of 215 schools ranked, in the category of “Best Bang for the Buck” colleges, “the schools where students of modest means get the most for their money.”

U.S. News & World Report released its 2021 Best Colleges report. Among 124 regional universities in the West, UW Tacoma is #8 on a list of “Top Performers on Social Mobility.”

Both rankings focus on social mobility, or the likelihood that students possessing an institution’s degree will experience upward movement through the layers of social and economic classes. Both rankings rely on data available from the U.S. Department of Education (the IPEDS database) and particularly focus on how the ranked colleges do with students that receive financial aid grants via the federal Pell program.

Differences between the ranking methodologies (Washington Monthly is here, U.S. News is here) include Washington Monthly’s use of an eight-year graduation rate for all students, which they say presents a more complete picture of a college’s success with students, rather than the six-year data on first-time, full-time students that U.S. News employs.