Social good matters

       The Washington Monthly magazine came out with its own college rankings today,naming the USs best colleges from a very different vantage point from that of US News and World Report .The Washington Monthly ratings try to measure which US colleges do the most for the social good, by improving social mobility,producing research and promoting service.
       The magazines College Guide website looks at different indicators than most other ranking systems: the percentage of students getting grants and their graduation rates, the institutions research spending, its record of BA recipients going on to get PhDs or going into the US Peace Corps, and what percentage of federal work-study funds the institution spends on service.
       By those lights, the top three universities in the US are all part of the University of California system: UC Berkeley, UC San Diego and UCLA. Thirteen of the top 20 US universities are public, while Harvard comes in at number 11, Yale at 23 and Princeton at 28. In the US News rankings, none of the top 20 national universities are public.
       Among the liberal arts colleges, most of the top 10Amherst, Mount Holyoke,Williams, Harvey Mudd, Haverford, Smith,Bryn Mawr, Swarthmore, Carleton and Wellesley are among the leading colleges in the US News lists, too.Womens colleges are standouts by the Washington Monthly criteria, with four among the top 10. Black institutions do far better here than they do on the US News rankings.The US News & World Report rankings, the leader in the field and the one everyone loves to hate, are probably the best measure of a universitys prestige so much so that some college presidents earn bonuses for getting their school to rise on the lists.
       At a time when higher education is getting unprecedented attention and tuition is reaching unprecedented heights college rankings have become a growth industry,both in the US and around the world. Each ranking system uses different criteria.
       The Washington Monthly rankings, looking at the indicators of colleges social utility, are a different kind of effort, and an interesting one, too.