Washington Monthly magazine has ranked UC Riverside No. 4 among 444 universities nationwide in terms of its Pell Grant student performance.
The accolade, released Monday as part of Washington Monthly’s 2022 college rankings, represents UCR’s excellence in several Pell performance categories that were factored. Those include:
- UCR is among the top 20 universities in the number of Pell Grant recipients it graduates, with 2,393, according to the federal data on which Washington Monthly’s list relies.
- UCR ranked No. 21 in the nation in graduating Pell Grant recipients at the same level as students who did not receive a Pell Grant. There is no discrepancy in the percentage of Pell and non-Pell students who graduate from UCR.
- UCR was among the leaders in a measure that compared the potential pool of low-income students vs. how many a university enrolled. That potential pool considers the geographic area from which students typically enroll. In that measure, UCR ranked behind only Brigham Young University, UC Merced, and Alabama State University.
The Pell Grant is the largest federal grant program offered to undergraduates and is typically awarded to students from households earning less than $65,000 per year.
In the 2022 Washington Monthly rankings, UCR was No. 39 among public universities. UCR’s overall Washington Monthly ranking among 444 private and public universities is No. 69, sandwiched on this year’s list by Syracuse University at No. 68 and Georgia Institute of Technology at No. 70.
Washington Monthly’s rankings methodology is based on three equally rated portions: social mobility, research, and community and national service. The source of Washington Monthly's data is the National Center for Education Statistics' Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System.
In the subcategory of social mobility, UCR was ranked No. 59. In the category of research, UCR is No. 61 overall, ranking No. 44 in “faculty accolades,” which considers the number of faculty receiving prestigious awards. In service, it was ranked No. 295.
In Washington Monthly’s complementary “Best Bang for the Buck Rankings,” also released Monday, UCR was No. 48 among 214 four-year universities ranked in the West.
Washington Monthly’s top five overall for 2022 college rankings includes, in order, Stanford, University of Pennsylvania, MIT, Princeton, and Duke.
“There are… multiple University of California and California State campuses in the upper echelons of our rankings, the mark of a system that, despite financial ups and downs in recent decades, was built on a foundation of research excellence and affordability in a state that has long been a magnet for immigration and innovation,” Washington Monthly’s editors wrote in an introduction to this year’s rankings.
The U.S. News & World Report 2022 college rankings, the most-watched rankings, are set for release in September. For three consecutive years, U.S. News has ranked UCR No. 1 in the nation for social mobility.
Separately, the Princeton Review recently released its annual best colleges list, with UCR earning high ranks in financial aid (No. 11 in the U.S.), making a public impact (No. 20), and best value (No. 23).
The full 2022 Washington Monthly rankings report is available online.
