Fresno State is ranked among Washington Monthly’s top 30 national universities that best serve the country in the areas of social mobility, research and civic engagement.

The magazine announced Monday that Fresno State ranked No. 26 out of 389 private and public universities. Fresno State is joined in the top 30 by six Ivy League institutions, seven University of California campuses, MIT and top-ranked Stanford University.

For the fifth straight year, Fresno State is the only California State University in the top 30, and is one of two Mountain West Conference schools to make the list, along with Utah State University. Among more than 400 American Association of State Colleges and Universities members, Fresno State is also the only one to make the magazine’s top rankings.

The University also ranked No. 23 in the Best Bang for the Buck: West category for how well it helps non-wealthy students attain marketable degrees at affordable prices.

Washington Monthly, known for its annual rankings of American colleges and universities, has published its list of top schools for the past 16 years with what it calls “a different kind of college ranking,” calling attention to colleges based on their contribution to the public good, not prestige or wealth.

“These national rankings are further proof that Fresno State’s commitment to boldly educate and empower our students for success is taking the University’s academic profile to new heights,” said Fresno State President Joseph I. Castro. “Our faculty and staff are supporting and engaging students in impactful and innovative ways, and the University is working as one with the community to develop partnerships that can be transformational for our region, where more than 80% of our alumni choose to stay and work.”

Year after year, Fresno State continues to deliver on its mission to educate and empower students for success through classroom learning, hands-on experiences and community collaborations. Examples include:

  • The University’s first finalist for the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship in spring 2020. Danielle Richman, who graduated last May, was a Smittcamp Family Honors scholar and student-athlete who excelled in the classroom and in golf. She was a political science and history double major with a passion for refugee policy and foreign politics. Kinesiology major Mistique Davis was one of 10 students nationwide chosen as a 2020 Frederick Douglass Global Fellow for her strong leadership skills, history of service to others and commitment to social justice.
  • Despite the COVID-19 pandemic putting a halt to many service-learning initiatives, the University and its thousands of student, faculty and staff volunteers still provided over 1 million hours of service to the community for the 11th year in a row.
  • Fresno State anticipates the largest incoming class in the University’s history this fall with about 3,700 freshmen and almost 2,800 transfer students. About 67% of the students in the incoming class are the first generation in their families to attend college.

A week ago, Fresno State ranked No. 7 for Most Transformative Colleges and No. 40 for Best Public College in Money Magazine’s “Best Colleges” rankings.

Fresno State was reclassified as a Carnegie doctoral university in 2016, meaning it was reviewed the past five years with the nation’s top doctoral granting institutions rather than the top master’s universities. Fresno State offers doctoral degrees in nursing, physical therapy and educational leadership.

 

Washington Monthly 2020 Top 30 National Universities:

  1. Stanford University
  2. Harvard University
  3. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  4. Yale University
  5. Princeton University
  6. Duke University
  7. University of Pennsylvania
  8. Georgetown University
  9. University of California, San Diego*
  10. Utah State University*
  11. University of California, Los Angeles*
  12. Texas A&M University, College Station*
  13. University of California, Davis*
  14. Columbia University, in the City of NY
  15. University of Florida*
  16. University of Washington, Seattle*
  17. University of California, Berkeley*
  18. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign*
  19. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill*
  20. University of California, Santa Barbara*
  21. University of Wisconsin–Madison*
  22. University of California, Irvine*
  23. University of Notre Dame
  24. University of Chicago
  25. Cornell University
  26. California State University, Fresno*
  27. University of California, Riverside*
  28. University of Virginia*
  29. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
  30. Northwestern University

*Public institution