ORANGE COUNTY, CA — The University of California, Irvine is ranked No. 1 on Money magazine’s latest list of the nation’s best colleges, knocking Princeton University off the top spot, UCI revealed Monday.
The achievement makes UC Irvine the first public university to achieve no. 1. The ranking is up from no. 3 last year and no. 7 in 2017, something that the university says acknowledges it’s continued growth in providing “accessible, high-quality education and fostering alumni success.”
The magazine evaluates colleges annually using 26 factors across three categories – quality, affordability and outcomes – each of which accounts for one-third of a school’s final score.
According to Money — which recently went all digital and is now known as Money.com — UCI scored well across the board on the 2019-20 list, but especially in the measures of low-income and Pell Grant enrollment and favorable graduate outcomes.
“This latest recognition of our national leadership in combining outstanding academics with outstanding value is testament to the concerted efforts of our faculty, staff, students and supporters,” UCI Chancellor Howard Gillman remarked.
UCI excelled in indicators of short- and long-term affordability. The campus provided need-based grants to 59 percent of its students. Over 12,000 UCI enrollees received Pell Grants in 2018-19, and UCI graduated more Pell students than any other college. The majority were first-generation students, for whom a university education is a means to upward social mobility. Almost half of UCI’s incoming class of California-resident freshmen are first-gen, and the ratio is even higher for in-state transfer students.
Additionally, according to the survey, UCI graduates’ median debt load was $19,000, much lower than the national average, and their early-career earnings averaged $57,700 per year.
These factors determining the Money.com rankings help explain why, among UC campuses, UCI had the largest total number of in-state freshman applications for the 2019-20 academic year, as well as the most from underrepresented minorities and Chicanos/Latinos.
The Money.com recognition is just the latest in a series putting UCI in the top tier of U.S. universities for affordability and excellence. According to Forbes, UCI ranks No. 1 in the country among public universities for “best value” – a school’s ability to deliver the biggest bang for the tuition buck based on costs, academic quality, postgrad earnings, student debt and graduation success.
U.S. News & World Report currently rates UCI the seventh-best public university in America. And in the 2019 Wall Street Journal/Times Higher Education rankings of this nation’s universities, UCI placed first for offering an inclusive, supportive learning environment.
In addition, for the second consecutive time, the campus tops The New York Times’ College Access Index of U.S. universities, which gauges their commitment to economic diversity through the number of low- and middle-income students that a school enrolls and the price it charges them.
