Alfred University earns recognition in Washington Monthly college rankings

ALFRED, NY – Washington Monthly recently released its 2021 College Guide and Rankings and Alfred University is among the institutions of higher education to earn national recognition.

In its 2021 College Guide and Rankings, announced Monday, Aug. 30, Washington Monthly ranked Alfred University 102nd on the list of Top Master’s Universities. The publication ranked 616 master’s universities, which it defined as four-year institutions that offer a significant number of master’s degrees. In addition, Alfred was one of just 204 colleges and universities in the country to be named to Washington Monthly’s 2021 America’s Best Colleges for Student Voting list, which list recognizes institutions for promoting student voting and civic engagement.

Since 2005, Washington Monthly has ranked colleges based on what they do for our country. Institutions are ranked based on their contribution to the public good in three broad categories: social mobility, research, and promoting public service. Criteria applied in determining rankings included: eight-year graduation rates; number of Pell graduates; percentage of graduates living above 150 percent of the poverty line; net price of attendance for families with an income below $75,000; percent of loan principle remaining five years after graduation; predicted loan principle remaining; research rank; and service rank.

Social mobility rankings take into account such metrics as graduation rate, affordability, and financial success of alumni. Research rankings are determined in part by spending on research, the number of doctorate degrees awarded and undergraduate alumni who have gone on to earn a doctorate degree, the number of faculty who have received prestigious awards, and the number of faculty in the National Academies. Public service rankings are based on student participation in ROTC and service programs like the Peace Corps or AmeriCorps, how institutions prioritize community service programs when disbursing federal work-study grant funds, and how institutions promote voting initiatives on campus.

Alfred University ranked among the top colleges and universities in the country with regard to voter engagement. Schools recognized among Washington Monthly’s “America’s Best Colleges for Student Voting” must have submitted an ALL IN Democracy Challenge action plan in 2018 and 2020; signed up to receive National Study of Learning, Voting and Engagement (NSLVE) data about their own campus registration and turnout rates; and made both their 2016 and 2018 NSLVE data available to the public.