Four of the top five colleges for delivering upward mobility for low-income students in the U.S. are in California, according to the Wall Street Journal/College Pulse college rankings.
Colleges at the top of our social-mobility ranking are those that perform well on both graduation and salary metrics, while taking in high proportions of low-income students.
California State University – Los Angeles tops the social-mobility ranking, followed by the University of California – Merced and Berea College, a small private college in Kentucky. Fresno Pacific University and California State University – Northridge round out the top five.
Jim Tsoukalas, who graduated from California State University – Los Angeles this year, says flexible teachers and helpful counselors kept him on track to graduate with a degree in business administration. And, he says, the price was right: “I didn’t want to go too deep into debt, so Cal State was a viable option for me.”