California State University, Dominguez Hills (CSUDH) has been ranked 10th in the CollegeNET, Inc., 2020 Social Mobility Index (SMI), a significant advancement from last year’s ranking of 20th in this annual assessment of institutions or higher education across the nation.
CollegeNET used data-driven analysis to rank 1,449 four-year colleges and universities according to how effectively they enroll students from low-income backgrounds, and graduate them into well-paying jobs.
A university’s ranking is based on five variables, tuition, student economic background, graduation rates, early career salary, and university endowment, although the variables are not weighted equally. The greatest sensitivity for an institution’s ranking is the low tuition and/or the percentage of students with family incomes less or equal to $48,000 per year, which is listed as “low income” in the SMI. At CSUDH, tuition is $6,945 and 61.7 percent of students are considered low income.
This year, seven out of 10 California State University campuses ranked in CollegeNET’s top 10, and California was first nationally in the SMI state ranking.
