Washington Monthly magazine has once again listed Cal State San Bernardino among the best universities in the country in three categories according to the magazine’s 2022 College Guide and Rankings.

CSUSB ranked 43rd in national universities, 24th in the Best Bang for the Buck in the West category and named among America’s Best Colleges for Student Voting.

CSUSB was listed in the national university rankings after the university was designated an R2 institution earlier this year by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education (CCIHE), recognizing CSUSB’s development from a master’s level-comprehensive university to one that awards research/scholarship doctorates. The R2 designation places CSUSB among the top 7% of colleges and universities in the nation from the ranking of 3,900 colleges and universities and the classification of 137 as R1 and 133 as R2.

“These rankings by Washington Monthly reflect the ongoing efforts by our faculty, staff and administrators to create one of the best and most affordable learning environments that also encourages civic and community engagement,” said CSUSB President Tomás D. Morales. “We want our students to not only be ready to join the workforce, but also take their rightful role as leaders in society.”

In its Best Bang for the Buck category, which is organized by five regions, Washington Monthly recognizes the schools for social mobility where students of modest means get the most for their money.

The Best Colleges for Student Voting category recognizes schools that do the most to turn their students into citizens.

According to the website, “Although the recent burst of youth voting stems from larger forces – the mobilizing power of social media, progressive backlash to white nationalism – part of the credit goes to the work of student voting organizers, who mobilized young Americans to register and cast ballots despite the pandemic and restrictive voting laws. This includes small, student-led groups that work to get their peers to the polls, as well as national organizations like the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge, which helps colleges develop registration and turnout plans.”

“Our students are keenly aware that their participation in the voting process is linked to social change for our communities,” said Diane Podolske, director of CSUSB’s Office of Community Engagement. “Providing students with information about their rights as voters and with neutral information resources fosters their ability to confidently participate in elections, both now and in the future.”

To make the list, institutions had to submit action plans to the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge for 2020 and 2022. Schools also needed to have signed up to receive data from the National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement (NSLVE), which calculates college-specific registration and voting rates. And they must have made both their NSLVE data available to the public. In short, schools need to have shown a repeated commitment to increasing student voting – and have been transparent about the results.

To view all the 2022 College Guide and Rankings, visit the Washington Monthly website.