What makes a college great? For too long, that question has been answered by rankings based o
n a narrow and outdated formula that includes variables like how many applications a college denies, how high their admitted students’ test scores are, and how large their endowment is. But that definition of excellence doesn’t serve students—or America.
If we care about long-term student success and national competitiveness, we need to focus on the institutions that deliver social and economic mobility at scale. And by every meaningful measure, public universities—especially regional public universities—do this best.
Yet these institutions often trail their peers in the most widely cited rankings, like U.S. News & World Report. While that publication is to be commended for placing a “greater emphasis on social mobility and outcomes for graduates” in its 2024 rankings, more change is needed for rankings systems that are still dominated by wealth and selectivity. The colleges doing the most to change lives still struggle to gain appropriate recognition.
This is problematic because, despite their limitations, rankings still matter. Students and families use them to decide where to apply. Prospective faculty and staff include them in their consideration of competitive offers from other institutions.
But rather than introducing students who may be the first in their family to attend college, working adults, or those from lower-income backgrounds to institutions best positioned to prepare them for success, many rankings instead potentially skew the perceptions of the colleges that are most worthy for these students.
That’s why this moment—when higher education is facing unprecedented criticism and challenges, and the percentage of young people choosing to pursue a four-year degree is dropping—matters. We can’t just dismiss and drop out of flawed rankings. We need to elevate and value better rankings, rankings that reward the kind of positive, lifelong impact higher education has always delivered.
The Social Mobility Index, Third Way’s Economic Mobility Index, and Washington Monthly rankings prioritize affordability, completion, post-college earnings, and access for students. These tools highlight a much clearer picture of institutional value—for individuals, communities, and the broader economy.
And they reveal a truth that other rankings obscure: the institutions delivering the greatest return for students and society are regional public universities.
Regional public universities educate not only large numbers of Pell-eligible and first-generation students, but also the majority of American students seeking a public four-year undergraduate degree. They prepare graduates for high-demand fields, support local economies, and create upward mobility across generations. They don’t measure success by who they exclude—they measure it by who they uplift.
This is not just a matter of fairness—it’s a national economic imperative. According to a 2024 report from the Georgetown Center on Education and the Workforce, 72% of jobs in the U.S. will require postsecondary education or training by 2031, and 62% of good jobs will require a bachelor’s degree or higher. As the population of traditional college-aged students shrinks, meeting future workforce demands will depend on bringing more low-income, underrepresented, and first-generation students into—and through—college.
The importance of this work is increasingly being recognized. The newly revised Carnegie Classification system now includes a Social and Economic Mobility category. Ninety-seven percent of all public four-year universities achieving the new Opportunity Colleges and Universities designation are regional public universities.
That’s a meaningful signal—but more is needed.
If we want higher education to continue to be the powerful force for equity, for economic growth, and for national competitiveness that it has long been proven to be, we need to realign our incentives and our recognition. Rankings must meaningfully measure and reward outcomes that matter: not endowment size, but social mobility; not exclusivity, but economic impact.
A truly great college isn’t one that preserves privilege. It’s one that creates opportunity. Regional public universities are delivering what the country needs most, at a time when talented and prepared citizens are needed more than ever. The rankings—and the nation—need to catch up.