CSULB ranked No. 3 nationally in social mobility report

Cal State Long Beach is ranked the No. 3 university in the nation for advancing economic and social mobility, according to the newly released 2021 Social Mobility Index, an annual report that measures the extent of a four-year college or university’s impact in providing opportunities for economically disadvantaged students to graduate into well-paying jobs. 

The Beach moved up two spots from last year’s Social Mobility Index ranking and from No. 7 in 2019. 

The Social Mobility Index is calculated on five factors: published tuition, percent of student body whose family income is below $48,000, graduation rate, median salary approximately five years after graduation, and university endowment.

CollegeNET, the organization that publishes the Index, aims to “change the generally accepted value system in the U.S. that views as ‘best’ those institutions that are rich and replace it with one where ‘best’ instead means those institutions that are acting to solve the urgent problem of declining economic mobility in our country.”

In separate rankings, The Beach was recognized as the No. 2 master’s-level university in the nation and the No. 1 university in the West for best value by Washington Monthly. Cal State Long Beach is also a top producer of degrees awarded to Hispanic students.