By Mark Muckenfuss

Cal State Monterey Bay is No. 23  among the nation’s top 500 colleges in terms of social mobility, according to the Wall Street Journal/College Pulse annual rankings. 

CSUMB was nationally ranked 158th overall, ahead of such schools as San Diego State and UCs Santa Barbara and Santa Cruz, in the WSJ/College Pulse 2025 Best Colleges in the U.S. rankings, released on Thursday, Sept. 5.  

"Cal State Monterey Bay offers a high-quality education that is affordable and accessible to a diverse population of students, allowing us to drive social mobility for our graduates, our community and the state,” said President Vanya Quińones. “We continue to be nationally recognized in rankings because of our ability to help students find their strengths and provide a transformative degree that sets them up for a lifetime of success."

The social mobility metric in the Journal’s evaluation “rewards universities that take in the highest proportion of students coming from lower-income families, while maintaining high graduation rates and having a positive impact on graduate salaries and minimizing the costs of attending the college.”

In terms of state rankings, CSUMB was No. 21 overall among public universities. 

Colleges are scored on a 100-point scale for a number of criteria, including salary impact, learning opportunities and character development. CSUMB’s highest metrics came in the areas of its graduation rate, 83, and diversity, 81. 

Andrew Lawson, provost and vice president for academic affairs, said CSUMB’s success is a reflection of what the university offers its students. 

"We are fortunate to have excellent faculty and staff to provide personalized mentorship to our students, and who really invest in helping them connect to research, internships and experiential learning opportunities,” Lawson said. “Our ongoing success in these rankings is a reflection of that dedication to student support."

The Journal expanded its list for 2025, broadening the field of competition. 

“This year we expanded our ranking to include an additional 100 schools that either didn’t rank among the top 400 last year or hadn’t had enough responses to the survey of students and recent graduates that accounts for 25% of a college’s overall score,” the Journal said. “Every college included in the ranking received a minimum of 50 survey responses, with most receiving more than 100.

"This year’s ranking also features a finer-tuned model for calculations related to how much colleges boost their students’ graduation rates and salaries,” the report added. “The new model was developed with input from data scientists at Statista."

The full report can be found on the Wall Street Journal website.