Every fall, a familiar set of college rankings tell the same tired story. The wealthiest, most exclusive schools dominate the top. That leaves the vast majority of prospective students—whose SAT scores and family income aren’t in the upper 1 percent—to navigate one of the most consequential decisions of their lives armed with a deeply skewed picture of what “best” really means. And it leaves average citizens, whose taxes underwrite the higher education system to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars a year, wondering if the country is getting its money’s worth. The Washington Monthly College Guide and Rankings exist to offer a better answer.

This year, for the first time, we’ve combined all four-year colleges and universities—public and private, big and small, research and teaching—into a single master list of more than 1,400 institutions, America’s Best Colleges for Your Tuition (and Tax) Dollars. And we’ve revamped our methodology to focus even more squarely on what we think Americans most want from our colleges and universities: that they help students of modest means earn degrees that pay off in the marketplace, don’t saddle them with heavy debt, and prepare—indeed, encourage—them to become active members of our democracy. To allow for apples-to-apples comparisons, we’ve separated out research performance into a new companion ranking, America’s Best Colleges for Research, which recognizes the contributions of the subset of institutions that invest the most in the scholarship and scholars that drive scientific discovery and economic growth. (For more detail on our methodology, see here.)

Berea College

This tiny college in Appalachian Kentucky has been a top contender in the Washington Monthly’s rankings for the past decade, and this year once again proves that this was no accident.

Why? There’s simply no school that does as well by non-wealthy students as Berea College. Ninety-six percent of students—an incredibly high proportion—qualify for Pell Grants, federal financial assistance that is given to qualifying low- and middle-income students. Those students pay just $3,395 a year, factoring in aid. And they outperform expectations in every major way: graduation rate, debt, and earnings. That’s why we’re proud this year to rank Berea the number one school in America. 

Founded in 1855 by abolitionists who were the first to admit Black students in a southern state, Berea now operates as a federally recognized “work college.” Students spend at least 10 hours a week at on-campus jobs that keep the school running and its costs low. They start off in character-building jobs like food preparation and janitorial work and are given more choice in roles after their first year. Students might file paperwork, assist professors, conduct research, or herd cattle on the college farm. In return, they pay zero tuition and cover most other expenses—including room and board—with their $34-an-hour work scholarships, plus additional outside funding.

Those low costs add up to a rosy financial future for Berea’s graduates, who leave with the second-lowest debt of any school in the country (an average of $4,041) and earn $5,000 a year more, on average, than people of a similar background nine years after enrolling. Berea’s no-tuition, low-debt model is helping to close desperate worker shortages in fields such as nursing, where in Kentucky 3,900 positions went unfilled in 2023—proving that, in serving its students so well, Berea is serving everybody.

Berea is a selective school; its acceptance rate last year was 33 percent. But unlike other selective institutions, Berea is laser focused on opening its doors to the people who will benefit the most: low-income students from Appalachia, who make up more than 70 percent of the population. Not every school can copy Berea’s work study model, either. (Though plenty can, and should follow in its footsteps. Another federally recognized work college, the historically Black institution Paul Quinn, has risen significantly in our rankings through its efforts to “poverty-proof” its experience through low prices and hands-on career preparation.) But if other schools carefully tailor their offerings to benefit the most vulnerable, as Berea has done, they can make similar strides.

And if you’re a college seeker, particularly one in Appalachia, there’s no better leg up than this little school in the foothills.

California State University, Fresno

California State University, Fresno, shows how a public institution can deliver extraordinary value—without prestige branding, sky-high tuition, or exclusionary admission.

Located in Fresno County—an agricultural power-house with stubbornly high poverty in the heart of California’s Central Valley—Fresno State does the hard work of upward mobility. Our rankings use the number of federal Pell Grant recipients a school enrolls as a proxy for how accessible it is to students from median-income-and-below families. And Fresno enrolls 12,600 of them. The average net price for students from median-income families is just $5,171, and average student debt is $14,715, well below the national average. 

Fresno State’s outcomes land it in the top 25 percent of schools we rank, which is amazing given the economic challenges its students face. And its commitment to civic engagement is exceptional: More than 40 percent of federal work study funds go to community service, and 17 percent of students graduate with service-oriented degrees like teaching and social work.

Founded in 1911 as a teacher-training school, Fresno State joined the CSU system in the 1960s after moving to its current campus on the city’s northeast edge in 1956. Today it serves around 24,000 students, most of whom come from the surrounding region. It is also classified as an R2 research university, awarding 20 research and scholarship doctoral degrees a year.

But what makes Fresno State—and the CSU system more broadly—remarkable is not research output or selectivity. It’s regional commitment. Fresno doesn’t view education as a ticket out. It sees it as a way to root students more deeply in the place they call home.

President Saúl Jiménez-Sandoval grew up working on a farm in nearby Fowler. Many of his students have similar stories—raised in farmworker families, spending summers picking crops or helping to run small businesses. Today, they study agricultural science, business, and engineering, not to escape the Central Valley but to reinvest in it. Some go on to run the very firms whose products they once harvested.

That spirit infuses the institution. Fresno State runs the first and largest commercial winery in the country operated by students. Its research centers support the valley’s multibillion-dollar farm economy, testing everything from herbicide resistance to sustainable irrigation practices. And its library—one of the largest in the CSU system—underscores the school’s intellectual seriousness, even as the campus retains a proudly working-class ethos.

As a Hispanic-serving institution in one of the most heavily Latino regions in the country, Fresno State plays a critical role in expanding opportunity. (See “America’s Best Hispanic-Serving Colleges.”) Nearly 65 percent of students are the first in their family to attend college. Many stay close after graduating. 

Fresno State is one pillar of a CSU system (along with third-ranked CSU Northridge, fourth-ranked CSU Los Angeles, sixth-ranked CSU Sacramento, and many others) that dominates the upper reaches of our rankings. And that’s no surprise, because the CSU system excels at what higher education is supposed to do: make the American Dream more real, more local, and more attainable.

Princeton University

For all the justified derision directed at elite universities, Princeton remains the exception that proves the rule: Yes, a school can be highly selective (roughly 4 percent acceptance rate) and lavishly endowed (upward of $34 billion) and still serve the public interest. It ranks fifth overall in our rankings not because of its wealth or pedigree, but because it chooses to deploy both in the service of access, affordability, and real outcomes.

Low-to-moderate-income students at Princeton pay just $5,000 a year, on average. The university has eliminated loans from its financial aid packages, and its graduates carry some of the lowest debt levels in the country. It’s not that Princeton enrolls huge numbers of low-income students—about 1,000 receive Pell Grants, which is average for an Ivy League school—it’s that it serves those students particularly well. 

The school is also, of course, one of the most prestigious bastions of research in the country. On our Best Colleges for Research ranking, Princeton ranks fifth in the share of its faculty elected to the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

But what’s interesting is that Princeton has shown a rare willingness to use its institutional heft for something other than self-preservation. In April, when the Trump administration moved, without any clear demands, to restrict millions in federal research grants to the school using a thin pretext of anti-Semitism, the school’s president went on the offensive, giving a flurry of interviews to the national media. In an interview with Bloomberg a day after the cuts were announced, Princeton president Christopher Eisgruber made clear that Princeton would not offer concessions or policy changes to regain access to the grants, and he encouraged other schools to follow his lead in exercising their legal rights instead of cowering. “We have to be willing to stand up for [academic freedom],” he said. “In principle, we have to be willing to speak up … we have to be willing to say no to funding if it’s going to constrain our ability to pursue the truth.” To that end, the university floated a $320 million taxable bond to keep its research enterprise afloat. And in May, the school launched “Stand Up,” a communications initiative aimed at informing alumni and the public about threats to academic freedom and federal research funding. In doing so, Princeton behaved less like a cloistered institution of privilege and more like a public-serving institution—one willing to use its influence to protect academic freedom and democratic norms. For that it deserves our praise.

University of Texas Rio Grande Valley

In 2013, the Texas legislature voted to combine two regional campuses into a single new university: the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. The goal was to create a flagship-caliber institution for the state’s poorest region, one that could finally match the valley’s demographic gravity with educational power. In the decade since, UTRGV has done just that.

Today, UTRGV enrolls around 34,000 students across multiple campuses in Edinburg, Brownsville, Harlingen, and beyond. Roughly 93 percent of undergraduates are Hispanic, and more than 66 percent are the first in their family to attend college. Just under 17,000 receive Pell Grants. The university offers a tuition guarantee for families earning under $125,000 and keeps net price below $5,600 for median-income students. Average debt is among the lowest in Texas.

A testament to its success in such a short time, UTRGV will kick off its Division I football program this fall.

But the school’s impact goes far beyond access or athletics. Twenty-two percent of graduates have service-oriented majors, and UTRGV is the largest producer of bilingual educators in Texas. It has invested heavily in regionally focused research; its South Texas Diabetes and Obesity Institute and newly funded Harlingen Diabetes Center of Excellence target local health disparities. In 2016, UTRGV opened the valley’s first public medical school, expanding access to care in one of the state’s most underserved areas. In 2022, UTRGV opened the state’s only school of podiatric medicine and will launch a physical therapy program this fall. It is also in the process of developing the state’s second public optometry school, which will open in 2027, pending accreditation. 

There’s nothing generic about this institution. Its programs reflect the needs of the borderlands. And its students, overwhelmingly local, are reshaping what public higher education can look like when built with—and for—a community. UTRGV is redefining what a regional public university can do.

The University of Central Florida

The University of Central Florida was born with a countdown clock. In 1963, as rockets roared off the pads at Cape Canaveral, Florida lawmakers founded a university just 35 miles west to train the engineers, programmers, and technicians who would help America win the space race. It was called Florida Technological University, and its mission was explicit: to be the academic launchpad for the Apollo era.

Today, the renamed University of Central Florida still carries the same DNA. Its main campus in Orlando sits on a 1,400-acre footprint shaped like a circular NASA launch complex—complete with a central “launchpad” plaza at its heart. The university is one of the largest in the country by enrollment, with nearly 70,000 students, and one of the most technologically focused. It is a national leader in optics, lasers, aerospace, and simulation, all fed by deep partnerships with NASA, Space Force, and behemoth defense contractors like Lockheed Martin.

But UCF isn’t just a pipeline to Cape Canaveral. It’s also a national engine of upward mobility. The university ranks 17th overall in the Monthly’s list thanks to strong scores on access and affordability. It enrolls more than 20,000 recipients of Pell Grants, and its average net price for students from median-income families is just $7,510. These students carry an average debt load of $18,525, which is below the national average.

UCF’s student body reflects the future of American higher ed: racially and economically diverse, many the first in their family to go to college, and overwhelmingly from Florida. Rather than try to emulate elite flagships, UCF has embraced its size and mission, developing one of the most sophisticated student success infrastructures in the country. It uses predictive analytics to identify at-risk students, offers them extensive peer mentoring, and, like the rest of the Florida school system (see Christopher M. Mullin, “Florida’s Fresh-Squeezed Colleges”), it has streamlined its course offerings to help students graduate on time. 

The results show. UCF graduates earn solid middle-class salaries. Many stay local, fueling Central Florida’s booming aerospace, health care, and tourism sectors.

Civic engagement is part of the mix. About 18 percent of UCF students pursue service-oriented majors like education and social work, though that figure doesn’t even capture alumni employed by NASA, who are no doubt serving their country too. And the university holds the Carnegie Community Engagement designation—a national recognition for colleges that build strong partnerships with local communities through service, research, and education. The school’s growing downtown campus, located steps from Orlando’s city hall, was designed as a public-private partnership—with space for nonprofits, clinics, and local job-training programs integrated alongside classrooms.

The school’s research profile is also on the rise. UCF now spends more than $200 million annually on research (boosting it to number 98 on the Monthly’s Best Colleges for Research list), with particular strengths in photonics, simulation, and biomedical engineering. It comes in at number 58 in science and engineering PhDs awarded, and number 104 in faculty accolades. UCF is a young university, but one that’s punching well above its weight.

Williams College

One of the nation’s most prestigious liberal arts colleges, this school tucked in the Berkshires also makes the top of the Monthly’s social mobility–focused list thanks to the unmatched outcomes it offers its students.

The average Williams student pays just $1,027 a year, after financial aid. That’s the third-cheapest education in the country. Once they make it through Williams’s rigorous academic programs, students graduate with low debt and go on to earn PhDs at the highest rate of any American university. (Williams graduates slightly underperform in their early-career earnings, but that’s likely because so many are pursuing advanced degrees.)

Williams has a small population—2,150 students—and a 232-year history. That has created some strong traditions. Each January, students stay on for “Winter Study,” a monthlong break period where they take only one class, often a study abroad taught by alumni. Its academics are modeled on the close, personal tutoring of Oxford and Cambridge. The Ephs—the nickname for Williams students—have need of all that tradition. The closest city of any size is Albany, an hour away.

When it comes to access, Williams has some room for improvement. The college only admits a small number of students on federal Pell Grants, which means it ranks 759th in terms of how easily non-wealthy students can gain admission. The overall acceptance rate is only 10 percent. Once they’re there, however, those students do well. They make it through college at a higher rate than others with their income level and test scores.

For those who get in the door, the quality of a Williams education can’t be questioned.

Brigham Young University

Brigham Young University is, in many ways, one of the most distinctive institutions in American higher education. Owned and operated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, it is at once a faith-based university, a national academic performer, and a deeply affordable option for low- and middle-income students. It operates on a different model—and, to a large extent, a different set of values—than most of its peers.

The numbers are hard to argue with. More than 10,000 undergraduates receive Pell Grants (roughly one in three students). Tuition is just over $5,000 for members of the LDS Church (double that for non-LDS students, very few of whom attend), and the university discourages debt both culturally and structurally. Because BYU is owned and operated by the LDS Church and is considered a religious institution, the First Amendment’s establishment and free exercise clauses protect its ability to favor members of its sponsoring church in tuition and other policies. Students graduate with an average loan burden of just $11,523, compared to the national average of $26,000, and more than half borrow nothing at all. BYU’s graduation rate is well over the average, and its alumni earnings are strong across sectors, from business and law to STEM and government service.

Brigham Young University boasts a strict honor code that governs everything from dress to dating to doctrinal belief. Further, it is a place where academic rigor exists alongside religious instruction, where student life is shaped as much by ecclesiastical authority as by campus governance. The university has been a focal point in national debates over LGBTQ rights in religious education, particularly since its Title IX exemptions—which allow the university to ban same-sex intimacy on campus—drew scrutiny from civil rights groups and the Department of Education under President Joe Biden.

Still, for tens of thousands of students from the LDS Church, BYU offers an elite-caliber education aligned with spiritual mission. It sends graduates into federal clerkships and the CIA, but also into missionary work and church leadership. It is at once inward facing and professionally ambitious.

While many universities drift toward ideological sameness, BYU remains deliberately apart. Whether you see it as a beacon or a bubble may depend on what you think a university is for—but there’s no denying BYU’s power as a vehicle of upward mobility within its community.

Pomona College

At first glance, Pomona College looks like the quintessential liberal arts powerhouse: a leafy, elite enclave nestled in beautiful Southern California, part of the prestigious Claremont Colleges consortium. But what sets Pomona apart isn’t just its small class sizes, generous endowment, or 7 percent acceptance rate. It’s that this elite school actually delivers on affordability—and, to a lesser degree, equity.

Start with the numbers. Pomona ranks third in affordability among all liberal arts colleges in the Washington Monthly rankings. Median-income students who attend pay a net price of just $4,828 per year—lower than most public universities. And when they graduate, they carry some of the lightest debt burdens in the country: just $11,257 on average, which ranks fourth best among peer institutions. That combination of low price and low debt is a powerful engine of mobility, especially for the subset of students who come from disadvantaged backgrounds.

That subset, however, is smaller than it could be. Pomona enrolls around 318 recipients of Pell Grants—not a trivial number, but modest for a school of its size and resources. Thus Pomona ranks 640th overall in access, not because it fails to support low-income students, but because it admits a small, carefully curated student body. For the students who attend, the resources are extraordinary. Students at the school enjoy the opportunity to explore classes (and a social life) at the four other Claremont Colleges—Harvey Mudd (ranked number 91), Claremont McKenna (55), Pitzer (228), and Scripps (363). And few have ever complained about the Southern California climate.

Among elite liberal arts colleges, Pomona is a leader on affordability—and a quiet rebuttal to the idea that small, private institutions can’t contribute to economic mobility. Its impact may be measured in depth, not breadth—but for the students who make it in, the opportunity is real. 

Arizona State University

Arizona State University calls itself the “New American University.” That kind of branding might sound like marketing hype—but in this case, it reflects something real. ASU is one of the largest and most ambitious public universities in the country, serving more than 183,000 students across its online and in-person programs. It ranks 32nd overall in the Monthly’s rankings and an impressive 14th in access, largely due to its scale and dedication to serving low- and middle-income students.

Just under 80,000 students are enrolled in ASU’s “campus immersion” programs in Tempe, downtown Phoenix, Mesa, and elsewhere. Among them, 42 percent are the first in their families to attend college, and 31 percent receive Pell Grants. The school admits almost all students who meet basic requirements and maintains a relatively low net price of $10,638. Median student debt at graduation—$19,926—is well below the national average of 26,400.

Founded in 1885, ASU has grown into the opposite of an ivory tower. It has a sprawling physical presence, a diverse student body, and a research engine that ranks 26th in the nation in producing STEM PhDs.

ASU’s relatively low outcomes ranking—934th out of roughly 1,400 colleges—reflects more of a data quirk than a performance failure. Graduation rates are reported separately by campus, and ASU’s main Tempe campus graduates 67 percent of its students—well above the national average. But the federal earnings data used in our rankings combines all ASU graduates, including those from its enormous online program, which has a lower graduation rate (44 percent) and serves a different, sometimes less prepared, population. That’s the paradox of scale: ASU opens its doors wider than almost any flagship university in the country, but serving tens of thousands of students from diverse academic and economic backgrounds makes consistency harder to deliver.

The university also does well on public service, putting a significant share of federal work study dollars into community-based jobs. Nearly 13 percent of graduates go into fields like teaching, social work, or nonprofit leadership. ASU also receives national recognition for its civic engagement efforts—partnering with local schools, clinics, and public agencies throughout the Phoenix area.

The campus culture reflects ASU’s dual personality: part research university, part civic engine. In Tempe, the desert sun bakes a skyline of gleaming new academic buildings, corporate partnerships, and start-up incubators. But scattered throughout the metro area are clinics, K–12 collaborations, and outreach programs that still reflect the school’s public mission.

Like many large state institutions, ASU may lack the hands-on feel of a small liberal arts college. For many students, though, it is exactly what they need it to be: affordable, flexible, career focused, and rich in opportunity. Few schools can say the same at ASU’s scale. And as a model for what large public universities might become—open-access, innovation driven, and public spirited—it remains one of the most important institutions in American higher education.

Johns Hopkins University

Johns Hopkins has the vibe of an Ivy but the engine of a federal agency. Tucked into Baltimore’s Charles Village, the campus blends redbrick quads and Georgian buildings with modern glass-and-steel labs. Students juggle biomedical engineering problem sets and cello recitals, while across town, faculty members lead pandemic response teams or run trials on Alzheimer’s disease treatments.

This is America’s original research university—the prototype. Founded in 1876 with a German-style focus on graduate training and original scholarship, Hopkins pioneered the very idea that universities should produce new knowledge. Today, it still spends more on research than any other college in the country: more than $3.6 billion a year, much of it in biomedical science and public health. Its School of Medicine and Bloomberg School of Public Health are among the world’s best.

More surprising: It’s relatively affordable. With an average net price of just $2,708 for median-income students, Hopkins ranks 17th in affordability—cheaper than many state schools, thanks to aggressive financial aid for those who make it through the admission gauntlet. Access is a mixed story. Just over 1,100 Pell Grant recipients are enrolled—not a standout figure, but far from the worst among elite private institutions. 

Hopkins ranks fifth in research in our 2025 rankings and 22nd in producing science and engineering PhDs. Its faculty are among the most awarded in the country, and its labs remain critical to national health and security. Given all of this, it is hard to fathom why the Trump administration has singled the school out so callously. Earlier this year, the U.S. government abruptly cut more than $800 million in global health funding to Hopkins, gutting dozens of programs linked to USAID. (For more on the cuts, see “America’s Best Colleges for Research.”)

Still, Hopkins will endure. What it lacks in warm-and-fuzzy liberal arts feel, it makes up for in seriousness of purpose. Its undergrads are known for their intensity—biophysics majors double-major in classics, engineers launch nonprofits in their spare time, and pre-meds volunteer in Baltimore clinics before sunrise. The Homewood campus might not have the rah-rah spirit of a Big Ten school, but it crackles with natural ambition that political attacks can’t tame. 

Florida Atlantic University

With its main campus in Boca Raton and satellites in various other South Florida beach towns, Florida Atlantic University might sound like the kind of institution that caters to dissolute out-of-state rich kids. Instead, its student body mirrors the striving, diverse, predominantly working-to-middle-class demographics of surrounding Palm Beach, Broward, and Miami-Dade Counties. At number 39 on the Washington Monthly’s rankings, FAU places higher than elite private schools elsewhere in the South like Rice, Vanderbilt, and Emory. That’s because the Monthly rewards colleges for enrolling students from modest backgrounds, keeping costs low, and producing strong outcomes. FAU does all three, making it one of the greatest success stories in American higher education.

Students from median-income families pay just $5,624 to attend Florida Atlantic. That’s lower than what many community colleges in other states charge after financial aid. FAU’s admission policy is also nearly as open as a community college, with an acceptance rate north of 70 percent—a far cry from the 24 percent acceptance rate of the state’s flagship, the University of Florida. And nearly 9,000 of FAU’s 31,000 students receive Pell Grants. 

Open-access schools like this tend to have low graduation rates and post-college student earnings. By contrast, Florida Atlantic ranks in the top 20 percent nationally for student outcomes. Graduates finish their degrees at above-average rates and earn solid wages in fields like business development, marketing, engineering, and information technology. Nearly one in five graduates earns a degree in a service-oriented field—education, nursing, social work, or public health. These are the professionals who keep South Florida’s schools, clinics, and communities running. FAU has also earned R1 research status—the highest classification a research university can receive—and built standout programs in fields like ocean engineering, neuroscience, and health sciences.

FAU’s campus was built in the early 1960s on the site of the Boca Raton Army Airfield, a World War II–era military installation used to train radar operators and patrol the Atlantic coast. (The airfield itself had been created on land seized during the war—5,800 acres taken through eminent domain from Japanese American farmers who had settled in the area as part of the early-20th-century Yamato Colony.) Today, remnants of the base—such as old runways—still mark the Boca campus, a quiet reminder of the fraught and layered history behind Florida’s postwar boom.

In 2023, the men’s basketball team grabbed national headlines with a Cinderella run to the Final Four. But the real story is what’s happened off the court: Florida Atlantic University has quietly become one of the country’s most effective engines of upward mobility.

University of Illinois Chicago

Schools that combine accessibility, affordability, and strong outcomes and that serve large numbers of students are hard to come by, especially in the Midwest. The University of Illinois Chicago is one of the rare exceptions.

UIC’s undergraduate program began as a makeshift operation for returning World War II veterans who traveled by streetcar to exhibition halls at Navy Pier. It moved to its present home on the city’s Near West Side in the early 1960s as part of a controversial urban renewal project spearheaded by Chicago’s then Mayor Richard J. Daley. It is located just southwest of what used to be called the Circle Interchange, where the city’s three major expressways connect. Chicagoans of a certain age still refer to it as Circle Campus, and while the wall of interstates can make it feel isolated, the university is now at the outer edge of some of the city’s hippest and fastest-growing neighborhoods.

UIC has also become a full-fledged research university with more than 30,000 students, most hailing from Illinois and nearly 40 percent from Chicago public schools. A large majority identify as Black, Hispanic, Asian, or multiracial, and more than 10,000 receive Pell Grants. That’s 22 percent more than other universities with similar demographics, a testament to UIC’s commitment to serve non-wealthy students.

UIC accepts nearly 80 percent of applicants, and while its graduation rate (70 percent over eight years) keeps its outcomes in the middle of the pack, students still earn an average of $57,439 a decade after enrolling—a better return than many public flagships and private institutions that serve far more privileged student bodies.

Just as important: It’s affordable. After financial aid, the average student pays less than $10,000 a year—a rare number for any major research university, especially one located in a large metro area. Starting in fall 2025, UIC is also offering free tuition to any student who is a citizen and an Illinois resident from a family earning less than $75,000.

It also happens to be one of the most quietly productive research institutions in the country. The university spends $360 million a year on research (55th in the nation in research expenditures) and ranks 51st in science and engineering PhDs awarded. That level of research output, combined with broad access and real affordability, is increasingly rare in American higher education.

In our rankings, UIC comes in at number 40 overall, ahead of many bigger-name schools—not because it’s the wealthiest or most selective, but because it does what public universities were built to do: make high-quality education available to a broad group of students, at a price they can afford, with a real chance of success.  

University of California Berkeley

Berkeley has long been the crown jewel of public higher education. From the adoption of the California Master Plan for Higher Education in 1960, Berkeley has embodied its boldest ideal: that a child from any background, given the right education, could rise as high as their talent would take them. And remarkably, in an era when many public flagships have drifted toward exclusivity and prestige-chasing, Berkeley still walks the line between excellence and access. The school educates a large number of non-wealthy students at a relatively low cost, and does it well.

More than 8,600 Berkeley undergraduates receive Pell Grants. Its access rank of 51 is impressive for such a prestigious institution. Students from median-income backgrounds pay an average net price of just under $10,000—a relative barga