Washington Monthly’s annual college ranking has recognized the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford for an eighth year as a substantial value college and one that contributes to the public good.
Washington Monthly uses information from the federal College Scorecard to base its national college rankings on social mobility, research and community, and national service.
Pitt-Bradford was the top public college in Pennsylvania on the magazine’s list of Best Bang for the Buck schools in the Northeast. Pitt-Bradford ranked 25th in the Northeast in a measure of median earnings for alumni 10 years after entering college, which is $59,853. That median salary is $11,583 more than earnings models predict. In other words, Pitt-Bradford graduates’ incomes are higher than statistical models would predict when they enter school.
Additionally, Pitt-Bradford was the second-ranked Pennsylvania public college in a nationwide ranking of colleges and universities that focus on students earning bachelor’s -- as opposed to graduate -- degrees. On that list as well, Pitt-Bradford ranked highly on earnings performance (7th) and number of ROTC students (22nd), as well as social mobility (32nd).
Washington Monthly considers the percentage of students enrolled in ROTC as part of its consideration of colleges and universities that contribute toward national service.
The magazine calculates social mobility using a complex formula of factors that include graduation rate and a predicted graduation rate given the number of students who come from families with lower incomes, the percentage of students receiving student loans, the admissions rate, and the racial/ethnic and gender makeup of the student body.
“This ranking, although lesser known, is particularly valuable to us,” said Rick Esch, president of Pitt-Bradford. “Washington Monthly’s rankings emphasize what we value most – helping students of all backgrounds achieve their goals."
The magazine, based in Washington, D.C., says that it “rates institutions of higher learning on the degree to which they recruit and graduate students of modest means, produce the scholarship and scholars that drive economic growth and human flourishing, and encourage students to be active citizens and serve their country.”
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