Money magazine has listed Cal State San Bernardino as one of the nation’s top 727 colleges and universities in its annual Best Colleges for Your Money rankings. The rankings listed CSUSB as 67th. Money also listed CSUSB among the 50 Best Public Colleges (42) and Best Colleges Where More Than Half of Applicants Get In (18). “We take great pride in once again being named one of the Best Colleges in America, as it is recognition of the outstanding and dedicated work of our amazing faculty and staff whose commitment to our students is second to none,” said CSUSB President Tomás D. Morales. “It’s especially gratifying to see our students succeed as many of them are the first in their families to come to college.” To make Money magazine’s initial cut, colleges had to have: 

  • At least 500 students;
  • Sufficient reliable data to be analyzed;
  • Not be in financial distress;
  • A graduation rate that was at or above the median for its institutional category (public, private or historically black college or university); or
  • A high “value-added” graduation rate (by scoring in the top 25 percent of its test of graduation rates after accounting for the average test scores and percentage of low-income students among its enrollees).

 A total of 727 schools met those requirements and were ranked on 26 factors in three categories: 

  • The quality of education focusing on the six-year graduation rate, value-added graduation rate, peer quality, instructor quality, financial troubles that can affect the quality of education as a growing number of schools are facing funding challenges, and how many Pell Grant recipients a school graduates;
  • Affordability focusing on the net price of a degree, debt, student loan repayment and default risk, value-added student loan repayment measures, and affordability for low-income students;
  • And outcomes focusing on graduates’ earnings, earnings adjusted by majors, college scorecard 10-year earnings, value-added earnings, college scorecard employment outcomes, job meaning and socio-economic mobility index – the percentage of students at each school that move from low-income backgrounds to upper-middle class jobs by the time the student reaches their mid-30s.

 Then using statistical techniques, all the data points were turned into a single score and the schools were ranked using those scores. See Money magazine’s Cal State San Bernardino web page. To see Money magazine’s complete rankings online, visit “These Are the 727 Best Colleges in America.”For a full description of the methodology, see “How MONEY Ranked the 2018 Best Colleges.” For more information on Cal State San Bernardino, contact the university’s Office of Strategic Communication at (909) 537-5007 and visit inside.csusb.edu.