“All of the top twenty U.S. News universities are private…But by our reckoning, public universities deserve a lot more credit than they’re getting—thirteen of our top twenty universities are taxpayer funded. The University of California system in particular stands out, grabbing the top three spots—and six of the top twenty-five. UC campuses enroll unusually large numbers of low-income students while maintaining high graduation rates, generating billions of dollars in research funding, and sending a healthy number of students into service programs like the Peace Corps.”

Washington Monthly breathes some much needed fresh air into the college rankings game.  Rather than measuring colleges based on arbitrary, extraneous, and easily inflatible (hello U$C) metrics, it focuses on what impact a college has on its community and nation.  Schools are measured based on their contribution to research and service, as well as to what extent they provide social mobility. Though rankings clearly can’t paint the whole picture of a university, I’m proud to see public universities getting the respect they deserve (unlike in USNews rankings), and that the UC’s—and UCLA—are given the respect they deserve for their important role in the growth of our country.