CSUMB’s value recognized in Washington Monthly rankings

Cal State Monterey Bay ranks in the top 5% of universities and colleges nationwide for its value in a new survey by Washington Monthly, an online magazine focused on policy issues. The publication’s annual “Best Colleges for Your Tuition” list puts CSUMB 73rd among just over 1,500 schools on its roster.

Among Western universities and colleges, CSUMB moved up nine points from last year to 24th among a field of 215. That represents a 27% gain. CSUMB finished ahead of such schools as Cal Poly Pomona, San Jose State, San Diego State and UCs San Diego, Irvine, Santa Barbara, Riverside and Santa Cruz. 

"These rankings reflect our mission to make a high-quality education accessible without burdening students with debt, and to prepare graduates for meaningful careers that strengthen our workforce and region,” said CSUMB Interim President Carlos Vargas. “I'm proud of our faculty and staff for delivering that value every day, and even prouder of the students who take that opportunity and turn it into success.” 

Washington Monthly’s methodology used four equally weighted criteria: access, affordability, outcomes, and community and national service. Evaluators used an average of the three most recent years of data to get a better picture of a college’s overall performance.

The two access components are the number of Pell Grant recipients and Pell enrollment performance. Using the U.S. Department of Education’s Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System, evaluators measured two affordability components: net price and median student loan debt of graduates.  

The rankings relied on four outcome measures in this year’s ranking. The first compared the reported eight-year graduation rate for all students (from IPEDS) to a predicted graduation rate. The second gave additional points for colleges with higher Pell than non-Pell graduation rates.  Post-college outcomes were the third measure and used actual, versus predicted, earnings of students four years after graduation. And, finally, data from the National Science Foundation was used to determine the share of undergraduate alumni who have gone on to receive a PhD, relative to the size of the college. 

The service score was determined by measuring each college’s performance across a range of engagement, including AmeriCorps programs. Those colleges receiving the Carnegie Community Engagement Classification – a designation CSUMB received earlier this year – were given an additional two points.