Wagner College ranked among the Top 25% of universities granting master's degrees in the U.S. this year in the Washington Monthly magazine's annual College Guide Rankings issue.
The Washington Monthly rankings try to quantify the public good being done by America's college and universities, according to the magazine. The magazine rates schools based on three broad categories: Social Mobility (recruiting and graduating low-income students), Research (producing cutting-edge scholarship and Ph.D.s), and Service (encouraging students to give something back to their country).
Wagner's strong overall ranking is based, in large part, on two quantitative measures of its commitment to community service. Out of 673 master's universities nationwide:
- We rank #21 this year for the number of students participating in community service and a total number of service hours performed, relative to school size, and
- We rank #13 for the number of staff supporting community service, relative to the total number of staff; the number of academic courses that incorporate service, relative to school size; and whether the institution provides scholarships for community service.
Wagner College also appeared on the Washington Monthly's 2015 Best Bang for the Buck Colleges (Northeast) list, which the magazine characterizes as "a set of rankings that rewards colleges that do a good job of conferring degrees on lower- and middle-income students while charging them reasonable prices. ... [It is] a stand-alone list of several hundred colleges performing well on access, affordability, and completion metrics."