Washington Monthly recognizes Pitt-Bradford for promoting social mobility

A Washington, D.C.-based magazine recognized the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford as a Top 20 college in the nation for earning a bachelor's degree and a “best bang for the buck” university.

Washington Monthly included Pitt-Bradford in its annual College Guide and Rankings, which looks at how colleges help the public interest through promoting social mobility, research and service.

Pitt-Bradford was ranked 19th among national colleges for bachelor's degrees, one of only two Pennsylvania colleges ranked in the top 20.

This is the second year that Washington Monthly has recognized Pitt-Bradford. The magazine emphasizes “what colleges do for their country,” Editor Kevin Carey wrote in introducing the ranking results.

“Instead of rewarding colleges for the number of applications they reject, we give them credit for enrolling unusually large numbers of low-income and first-generation students.”

Carey explained that Washington Monthly rankings differed from many others because instead of emphasizing “input” data like freshman SAT scores, it took into account outcomes such as whether students got good jobs after graduation.

A breakdown of the data taken into consideration showed that Pitt-Bradford ranked particularly well in ROTC (12th), the percentage of students entering the Peace Corps (21st), and social mobility (28th).

The social mobility ranking takes into account a college's graduation rate versus the predicted graduation rate. The predicted rate is based on the number of low-income students who attend, the percentage of students receiving student loans, the admit rate, the racial/ethnic and gender makeup of the student body, the number of students and whether the college is primarily residential.

Pitt-Bradford was also ranked 79th from among 385 northeastern schools for being “Best Bang for the Buck.”

Data examined for that ranking showed that Pitt-Bradford graduates' median pay 10 years after graduation was nearly $8,000 per year more than that of students from peer colleges.

The rankings appear in the magazine's September-October issue. Washington Monthly examined 1,404 colleges in all 50 states using information from the U.S. Department of Education's Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System.

In separate and additional recognitions earlier this summer, Pitt-Bradford was named to The Princeton Review's list of the Best Colleges in the Northeast for the 14th year in a row and as a College of Distinction for a third consecutive year.

Additionally, Colleges of Distinction recognized Pitt-Bradford as a Public College of Distinction and awarded the university Field of Study distinctions in business, education and nursing.