Fresno State is back among the top 20 best universities in the nation for being a driver of social mobility — providing a college education at an affordable price to create opportunities for students to move from one socioeconomic class to another.
The university ranked No. 14 out of 1,198 schools in the 2023 Social Mobility Index published Dec. 18 by CollegeNet, a provider of web-based on-demand technologies for higher education. Last year, Fresno State ranked No. 27.
California State University, Dominguez Hills led the rankings this year followed by Winston-Salem State University and California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. Another six CSU campuses made the top 20.
Tuition cost, economic background, graduation rate, early career salary and the size of a school’s endowment are used to determine the rankings. The index also uses ethos, a new metric introduced last year, to measure how a school’s messaging and communications teach faculty, students and the public about the institution’s attention to advancing social mobility.
This ranking comes after Fresno State placed No. 6 in the nation among public and private universities for social mobility in the Wall Street Journal/College Pulse 2024 Best Colleges. The university also ranked No. 8 among all colleges nationwide for social mobility in the 2024 U.S. News and World Report Best Colleges rankings. Both lists were published in September.
