UCR moves up in rankings

Rising seven spots from last year, the University of California at Riverside continues its upward climb in the latest rankings of the nation's top higher-learning institutions as compiled by Washington Monthly. The #15 ranking is another indication that UCR -- and the UC system in general -- remains one of the top public educational institutions in the nation.

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UC Riverside

But this is not your typical college rankings. No, it's not the usual rankings based upon money, popularity or prestige alone, but one that includes tangible results, particularly in terms of social mobility and community service:

Unlike other college guides, such as U.S. News and World Report, this guide asks not what colleges can do for you, but what colleges are doing for the country. It's a guide for all Americans who are concerned about our institutions of higher learning. Are our colleges making good use of our tax dollars? Are they producing graduates who can keep our nation competitive in a changing world? Are they, in short, doing well by doing good? This is the guide that tells you.

Washington Monthly

The Washington Monthly list ranks 242 national universities according to three primary categories:

performance as an engine of social mobility
fostering scientific and humanistic research
promoting an ethic of service to country

As such, 8 of 10 schools in the UC system are ranked, including 3 in the top 5: UCLA (2), Berkeley (3) and UC San Diego (4).

While 2 others rank in the top 15: UC Davis (8) and UC Riverside (15).

UC Santa Barabara (36), UC Irvine (49) and UC Santa Cruz (76) round out the UC rankings.

Locally, other large schools ranked as follows: USC (24), Pepperdine (56), University of San Diego (97), Caltech (141), San Diego State (145) and University of La Verne (186).

Texas A&M ranked first. But many other well-known national colleges didn't fare so well: Texas Tech (217), DePaul (150), Wake Forest (122), Arizona State (113), Boston College (109), Rice (103), Auburn (86), Princeton (78), BYU (68), Purdue (46), Vanderbilt (39) and Duke (29).

Two highly-regarded Ivy League schools -- Yale and Harvard -- were listed at 38th and 27th respectively.

Also of note were the rankings of a few local liberal arts schools: Claremont McKenna College (6), Pomona College (46) and Harvey Mudd College (65).

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