CSULB jumps to No. 1 in the West for best value

Cal State Long Beach begins its fall semester with a new No. 1 ranking for “Best Bang for the Buck” in the Western United States according to a new report in Washington Monthly. The ranking reflects a jump from No. 10 in the publication’s 2020 listing.  

The newly released ranking, compiled from a sample of 1,466 colleges from the 50 states, was created by isolating the social mobility metrics from Washington Monthly’s main rankings of four-year institutions. A school’s social mobility is determined by how well a school helps students attain marketable degrees at affordable prices.  

The ranking’s “key social mobility outcomes” include a school’s percentage of Pell grant recipients, graduation rate, net price, and the number of Pell grant recipients earning bachelor’s degrees. Together, these outcomes inform the results of the ranking.  

CSULB is a consistent top performer in social mobility listings, such as landing the No. 1 position in Education Reform Now’s rankings for its impact in driving social mobility, and ranking No. 5 in the nation on CollegeNET’s latest “Social Mobility Index.”  

According to a 2020 report by EdSource, CSULB had the largest gains in improved four-year graduation rates from 2015 (16%) to 2019 (34%) in the CSU system.