Out of more than 1,450 universities throughout the nation, Cal State San Bernardino was listed at No. 6 in CollegeNET’s 2019 Social Mobility Index (SMI).
 
According to CollegeNET’s SMI, SMI measures the extent to which a college or university educates more economically disadvantaged students (with family incomes below the national median) at lower tuition and graduates them into good paying jobs.
 
“Being recognized in the top ten for social mobility shows how dedicated our faculty and staff are to advancing and enriching the lives of our students,” said CSUSB President Tomás D. Morales. “As a university, we are extremely proud of this ranking and will continue to help our students achieve their goals.”
 
Data collected for the rankings came from the U.S. Department of Education’s College Scorecard and the Integrated Postsecondary Educational Data System. The SMI list was measured based on price of tuition, percentage of economically disadvantaged students, graduation rates, early career net salaries and endowment at the institution.
 
“Our focus in developing the SMI is to comparatively assess the role of our higher education system in providing a conduit for economic and social advancement,” says the SMI website. “Many other ranking systems exist to measure many other ‘goods.’ Despite its broad national importance, the good we seek to measure is more narrow: the extent to which colleges and universities contribute to solving the problem of economic divergence in our country.”
 
Other California State Universities joining CSUSB in the top ten include Cal State Los Angeles at No. 2, Fresno State at No. 3, CSU Channel Islands at No. 5, Cal State Long Beach at No. 7, Stanislaus State at No. 8, and Cal Poly Pomona at No. 10.
 
To view the whole list of rankings and the methodology used to create this list, visit the CollegeNET’s SMI website.