Contact: Joe Farris
STARKVILLE, Miss.--Mississippi State is among the top 100 national universities in a new college ranking based on "what colleges are doing for the country."
MSU is at No. 95 among 245 major public and private institutions in the Washington Monthly's first college rankings, which appear in the magazine's September issue.
The guide assesses universities on the basis of community service, research and how frequently they admit and graduate low-income students.
"While other guides ask what colleges can do for students, we ask what colleges are doing for the country," according to Washington Monthly editors.
The ranking formula includes the percentage of students serving in ROTC or the Peace Corps, the percentage of federal College Work-Study grants devoted to community service, total research expenditures, and the number of Ph.D.s awarded in science and engineering.
The formula also considers the percentage of students who qualify for federal Pell Grants for lower-income students, and the university's actual graduation rate compared with what would be expected, given the economic status of its students. Statistically, lower-income students are less likely to graduate than wealthier ones, the magazine says.
Thirty percent of MSU students receive Pell Grants, and 57 percent graduate within six years. The university devotes more than one-fourth of its federal work-study grants to community service programs.
MSU ranked sixth highest overall among the 12 Southeastern Conference universities, after Florida, Vanderbilt, Auburn, Kentucky, and Georgia.
Washington Monthly also ranked separately 200 liberal arts colleges across the country.