The Most Progressive Colleges In The U.S.

Stanford University has been rated the most progressive college in the United States by Degree Choices, a company whose website features information intended to assist students with their college and career decision-making.

The rest of the top five, in order, were the University of California, Berkeley; Cornell University, Yale University, and the University of California, Los Angeles. Rounding out the top 10 were: Harvard University; Massachusetts Institute of Technology; University California, Davis; Princeton University and Duke University.

Numbers 11-20 were: Wellesley College; University of Southern California; Pomona College; Columbia University; University of Pennsylvania; Rice University; University of California, San Diego; California Institute of Technology; Carnegie Mellon University; and Northwestern University.

The new ranking, which includes a total of 38 institutions, is based on five criteria: diversity, inclusivity, sustainability, health and well-being and freedom of speech policies.

The methodology that Degree Choices used to define “progressive” relies on data from several public sources, including the National Center for Education Statistics, the US Department for Education, The Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System (STARS), the Sierra Club and university and college websites for relevant policies. (Full disclosure: I occasionally contribute posts to the Degree Choices website.)

Diversity was measured by four components:

• The ethnic diversity of students and staff.
• Gender diversity – the ratio of male to females for both students and staff.
• Geographic diversity – the home location of the students attending the university.
• LGBTQ+ support and organizations within each university.

The California Institute of Technology was ranked first on this criterion, followed by New York University; University of California, Berkeley; University of California, Los Angeles; and Columbia University.

Inclusivity focused on how accessible universities were from a financial perspective and included two measures:

• Affordability for low-income families – the average net price of tuition after all financial aid has been included for individuals who come from low-income families.
• Financial aid – average institutional grants and scholarships offered to undergraduates.

Duke claimed the top spot on this ranking, with the rest of the top five being Yale, Stanford, Princeton and Williams College.

Sustainability consisted of two factors:

• The STARS system, which rates institutions on their long-term sustainability goals and the steps they are taking to ensure long term sustainability.
• The Sierra Report of Cool Schools, which is another method for analyzing a university’s sustainability policies and practices.

Stanford took the top spot for sustainability, followed by Cornell; University of California, Berkeley; University of California, Davis; and Harvard.

Health and Well-Being was rated by two measures:

• The number of mental health provisions offered by an institution.
• Campus crime statistics.

The University of California, San Diego was ranked first for Health and Well-being, with MIT, Amherst College, Pomona College and Wellesley College rounding out the rest of the top five.

Freedom of speech involved a count of the number of student organizations available at each university.

The University of Michigan was ranked first on this criterion, followed by the University of California, Berkeley; University of Texas; Cornell and UCLA.

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Degree Choices founder Ory Weihs explained the motivation behind the rankings: “By creating a supportive campus culture, colleges can provide a more positive atmosphere where students can excel. We hope that this study helps students when considering their college choices.”

A reasonable explanation of what constitutes progressive universities and why they are beneficial to students comes at a good time, amid all the hoopla about the University of Austin, an “institution” without students, degrees, a curriculum or accreditation, but with an abundance of anti-woke pretensions. As it turns out, Degree Choices’ rankings suggest that being progressive might not be such a bad attribute for universities to claim after all.