For the second consecutive year, UC Riverside is the No. 1 university in the country for social mobility in the U.S. News & World Report Best Colleges rankings. 

UCR rose up the charts in the overall rankings as well, now placing No. 34 among all public universities and No. 88 overall.

The social mobility ranking measures the size of the student population receiving Pell Grants and how well universities performed in graduating those individuals. According to U.S. News, most students who receive Pell Grants come from households with family incomes under $50,000 annually.

“I’m thrilled for our campus community that we are recognized as a national leader and an innovator in the social mobility movement,” said UC Riverside Chancellor Kim A. Wilcox. “Also, our stature as a top 35 public university reflects the nation is catching up with what we already know — that UCR is a teaching and research force to be reckoned with.”

This marks the third consecutive year that UCR has made national headlines in the U.S. News rankings. 

In 2019, UCR made the greatest overall rankings gain of any university in the country — moving up 39 positions in one year. In the 2020 rankings, U.S. News introduced the social mobility category for the first time, and UCR was rated the top university in the United States. 

UCR enrolls more students who receive Pell Grants than nearly every university in the country, and more than the entire Ivy League combined.

UCR’s overall ranking places it just ahead of the University of Arizona, University of Utah, and UC Santa Cruz — all members of the Association of American Universities. 

Other notable UC Riverside placements in the U.S. News 2021 rankings include No. 42 in the “Most Innovative Schools” category, No. 52 undergraduate computer science program, No. 56 in the “Best for Veterans” category, No. 79 undergraduate engineering program, and No. 97 undergraduate business program.