AMERICA'S BUT BANG POR THE BUCK COLLEGES: OUR ONE-OF-A-KIND LIST OF SCHOOLS THAT HELP NON-WEALTHY STUDENTS ATTAIN MARKETABLE DEGREES AT AFFORDABLE PRICES.

• Author: Kelchen, Robert

Over the last few years, we at the Washington Monthly have been thrilled to see growing public attention paid to colleges' roles in fostering upward social mobility among their students. Most notably, even our friends at U.S. News & World Report, long purveyors of a prestige-centric standard of excellence, have slowly begun to introduce measurements of social mobility into their rankings. Still, those metrics take a back seat to reputational surveys and how much money a college has. We prefer to do things differently.

This is our eighth year of producing a ranking of "best bang for the buck" colleges, which is laser focused on showing which colleges do a good job promoting social mobility--and which don't. We made a few tweaks to this year's lists. One was switching from the percentage of students receiving Pell Grants to the number of Pell recipients who earned bachelor's degrees. We did this to reward colleges that provide access to higher education to more of the low-income Americans who need it--and to give a nudge to the selective institutions that do a great job for the low-income students they admit, but who should be making room for far more of them. Another change was to take a state's income distribution into account in some of our measures to adjust for economic factors beyond a college's control. (A college in a state with lower poverty rates doesn't necessarily deserve to be penalized relative to one in a high-poverty state.) The rankings are broken down by region, beginning on page 54. (We used the same data and methodology to create the social mobility portion of the main rankings, which begin on page 64; the methodology is explained on page 105.)

The best bang for the buck colleges across each of the five regions are a mix of some of America's most elite institutions and hidden gems that make up for a lack of name recognition with strong student outcomes and a commitment to upward mobility. In the Northeast, the City University of New York's Baruch College and Bentley University in Massachusetts join Harvard and Yale in the top four. Baruch has more than twice the share of first-generation students as the other top colleges while charging a net price of just $4,128--$9 less than super-wealthy Harvard.

In the South and Midwest, Berea College and College of the Ozarks maintain their strangleholds on the top spots thanks to their economic diversity, relatively strong graduation rates, and commitment to meeting students' financial need. Texas public universities occupy six spots in the top twelve thanks to providing affordable degrees and successfully graduating large numbers of Pell recipients.

In the Southeast, Georgetown and Washington and Lee take the top two spots, reflecting the fact that they serve their lower-income students exceptionally well. But combined, they only graduated 279 Pell recipients last year--or less than one-fourth the number that fourteenth-ranked Florida International University graduated. Georgia's Augusta University, where 41 percent of students receive Pell Grants, is number three in the Southeast and a great option for students who want more socioeconomic diversity than is found at the top two schools.

Finally, in the West, the California State University system continues to dominate. While Brigham Young and Stanford top the list, twelve Cal State campuses appear in the top thirty of the West rankings. Fully 60 percent of students at fifth-ranked Cal State-Los Angeles are the first in their families to attend college, one of the highest rates in the country. Cal State deserves credit for showing a commitment to upward mobility across the system and the state.

We only display the top fifty colleges in print. Online, we list the full 200-plus colleges per region. Toward the bottom of those rankings, we find a mix of middling public and private nonprofit colleges along with a number of for-profit college chains. We railed against High Point University last year for its incredibly high net price and fancy amenities, but they get a partial pass this year for donating $1 million to Bennett College to help it stay open amid financial troubles. High Point is last in the Southeast this year (Bennett is 102nd), but they deserve kudos for helping out a higher-performing college. Once again, Baylor, Hofstra, Tulane, and Tulsa deserve raspberries for finishing near the bottom of the rankings in spite of having national reputations and sizable endowments. They can do better.

Robert Kelchen, an associate professor of higher education in the Department of Education Leadership, Management, and Policy at Seton Hall University, is data manager of the Washington Monthly College Guide.

BEST BANG FOR THE BUCK MIDWEST COLLEGES * Public institution ** For-profit institution 8-year Graduation graduating rate rank rate 1 College of the 68% 12 Ozarks (MO) 2 MacMurray College (IL) 57% 83 3 National Louis 62% 240 University (IL) 4 Union Institute & 74% 116 University (OH) 5 University of Illinois- 66% 204 Chicago (IL) * 6 Indiana Wesleyan 69% 43 University (IN) 7 Univ. of IL-Urbana- 86% 19 Champaign (IL) * 8 Western Illinois 62% 114 University (IL) * 9 University of 96% 2 Notre Dame (IN) 10 College of Saint 83% 73 Benedict (MN) 11 Milwaukee School of 61% 120 Engineering (WI) 12 Eastern Illinois 64% 82 University (IL) * 13 Illinois Institute of 73% 123 Technology (IL) 14 Bradley University (IL) 76% 8 15 Illinois State 73% 121 University (IL) * 16 Michigan State 80% 61 University (MI) * 17 Northwestern 94% 3 University (IL) 18 Goshen College (IN) 69% 7 19 Bethel University (IN) 67% 51 20 Kettering University (MI) 67% 58 21 Ripon College (Wl) 70% 189 22 Central Christian 48% 200 College of Kansas (KS) 23 Rockford University (IL) 59% 141 24 Univ. of Wisconsin- 62% 107 Stevens Point (WI) * 25 Univ. of Wisconsin-Green 53% 222 Bay (WI)* 26 Truman State 71% 24 University (MO) * 27 Fort Hays State 63% 96 University (KS) * 28 Indiana Unlversity- 79% 65 Bloomington (IN) * 29 Millikin University (IL) 63% 32 30 MO Univ. of Sei. & 68% 168 Technology (MO) * 31 Gustavus Adolphus 82% 81 College (MN) 32 Southwestern 57% 157 College (KS) 33 Buena Vista 63% 104 University (IA) 34 Indiana State 45% 346 University (IN) * 35 Mount Mercy 72% 21 University (IA) 36 University of Wisconsin- 85% 26 Madison (WI) * 37 Saint John's 79% 105 University (MN) 38 Tabor College (KS) 59% 64 39 Lake Forest College (IL) 71% 171 40 Dominican University (IL) 65% 74 41 Rochester College (MI) 58% 79 42 Madonna University (MI) 64% 86 43 Beloit College (WI) 80% 95 44 Purdue University- 70% 144 Main (IN) * 45 University of Michigan- 90% 9 Ann Arbor (MI) * 46 University of Michigan- 55% 190 Dearborn (MI) * 47 John Carroll 73% 18 University (OH) 48 University of 93% 4 Chicago (IL) 49 Chadron State 41% 325 College (NE) * 50 Trinity Christian 60% 56 College (IL) Predicted grad Grad rate rate based on performance % of Pell recipients, rank incoming SATs, etc. 1 College of the 59% 46 Ozarks (MO) 2 MacMurray College (IL) 48% 38 3 National Louis 41% 2 University (IL) 4 Union Institute & 39% 1 University (OH) 5 University of Illinois- 64% 144 Chicago (IL) * 6 Indiana Wesleyan 57% 24 University (IN) 7 Univ. of IL-Urbana- 78% 39 Champaign (IL) * 8 Western Illinois 53% 44 University (IL) * 9 University of 93% 101 Notre Dame (IN) 10 College of Saint 74% 29 Benedict (MN) 11 Milwaukee School of 67% 304 Engineering (WI) 12 Eastern Illinois 56% 42 University (IL) * 13 Illinois Institute of 69% 99 Technology (IL) 14 Bradley University (IL) 71% 87 15 Illinois State 63% 26 University (IL) * 16 Michigan State 69% 19 University (MI) * 17 Northwestern 94% 178 University (IL) 18 Goshen College (IN) 53% 12 19 Bethel University (IN) 53% 15 20 Kettering University (MI) 68% 210 21 Ripon College (Wl) 62% 33 22 Central Christian 41% 55 College of Kansas (KS) 23 Rockford University (IL) 54% 96 24 Univ. of Wisconsin- 61% 158 Stevens Point (WI) * 25 Univ. of Wisconsin-Green 54% 224 Bay (WI)* 26 Truman State 68% 100 University (MO) * 27 Fort Hays State 43% 7 University (KS) * 28 Indiana Unlversity- 69% 25 Bloomington (IN) * 29 Millikin University (IL) 57% 72 30 MO Univ. of Sei. & 65% 120 Technology (MO) * 31 Gustavus Adolphus 78% 80 College (MN) 32 Southwestern 36% 6 College (KS) 33 Buena Vista 57% 82 University (IA) 34 Indiana State 47% 247 University (IN) * 35 Mount Mercy 57% 13 University (IA) 36 University of Wisconsin- 79% 62 Madison (WI) * 37 Saint John's 72% 37 University (MN) 38 Tabor College (KS) 45% 17 39 Lake Forest College (IL) 68% 97 40 Dominican University (IL) 62% 105 41 Rochester College (MI) 43% 16 42 Madonna University (MI) 47% 9 43 Beloit College (WI) 74% 45 44 Purdue University- 73% 268 Main (IN) * 45 University of Michigan- 89% 170 Ann Arbor (MI) * 46 University of Michigan- 57% 220 Dearborn (MI) * 47 John Carroll 68% 95 University (OH) 48 University of 97% 286 Chicago (IL) 49 Chadron State 50% 336 College (NE) * 50 Trinity Christian 55% 73 College (IL) Pell/non-Pell Pell grad grad rate gap gap rank 1 College of the -4% 67 Ozarks (MO) 2 MacMurray College (IL) 41% 1 3 National Louis 6% 4 University (IL) 4 Union Institute & 5% 6 University (OH) 5 University of Illinois- -3% 40 Chicago (IL) * 6 Indiana Wesleyan 9% 2 University (IN) 7 Univ. of IL-Urbana- -6% 71 Champaign (IL) * 8 Western Illinois -8% 118 University (IL) * 9 University of -4% 47 Notre Dame (IN) 10 College of Saint -1% 57 Benedict (MN) 11 Milwaukee School of -12% 194 Engineering (WI) 12 Eastern Illinois -5% 68 University (IL) * 13 Illinois Institute of -6% 76 Technology (IL) 14 Bradley University (IL) 5% 9 15 Illinois State -11% 183 University (IL) * 16 Michigan State -12% 209 University (MI) * 17 Northwestern -0% 19 University (IL) 18 Goshen College (IN) -18% 280 19 Bethel University (IN) -6% 77 20 Kettering University (MI) -17% 302 21 Ripon College (Wl) -4% 103 22 Central Christian 9% 7 College of Kansas (KS) 23 Rockford University (IL) 0% 22 24 Univ. of Wisconsin- -5% 65...