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Rankings / Social Mobility

Best Colleges for Social Mobility

By David Krug, Co-Founder, CollegeRanker · Updated 2026-05-31 · 50 schools · Agent Insights
50
Schools Analyzed
$85,943
Avg. Earnings (10yr)
83%
Avg. Graduation Rate
$18,011
Avg. Net Price

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This ranking scores 50 institutions on graduation rates, graduate earnings, debt burdens, and social mobility data from Opportunity Insights. Every data point comes from federal sources. No surveys, no opinions.

Social mobility carries the heaviest weight in our algorithm. We use Raj Chetty's Mobility Report Card — built on 30 million anonymized tax records — to measure whether a college changes a family's economic trajectory across generations. Schools that take low-income students and launch them into higher earnings rank higher than schools that admit wealthy students and take credit for their success.

The transparency penalty matters here. Schools that don't report their data get scored lower than schools that do. If an institution won't show you its numbers, we think you should know that before you write them a tuition check.

Quick Numbers

Schools ranked 50
Avg. earnings at 10yr $85,943
Avg. graduation rate 83%
Avg. net price $18,011
Avg. median debt $15,054

How We Ranked

Mobility rate Q1→Q5 (25%) · Success rate for bottom 20% (15%) · Bottom 20% access (10%) · Economic connectedness (15%) · Friending bias (10%) · Volunteering (5%) · Pell rate (10%) · Income diversity (10%). Data: Chetty Mobility Report Card + Social Capital Atlas.

Read our full methodology →

Earnings vs. Cost

Each dot is a ranked school. Up = higher earnings. Right = higher cost. Top-left is the best value.

$15K$79K$143K$0$50KNET PRICEStanford UniversityPrinceton UniversityMassachusetts InstituteUniversity ofCUNY Bernard

Graduation Rates

Longer bars = higher graduation rate.

Stanford University92%Princeton University97%Massachusetts Institute …96%University of Pennsylvan…97%CUNY Bernard M Baruch Co…72%University of Chicago95%Johns Hopkins University94%Rice University95%CUNY Hunter College59%Brown University96%Vanderbilt University93%Cornell University95%Harvard University97%Georgia Institute of Tec…93%CUNY Queens College56%Wellesley College91%CUNY Brooklyn College55%Duke University96%University of North Caro…92%Dartmouth College96%

Top 3

#1

Stanford University

Stanford, CA

Graduation92%
Earnings$124,080
Net Price$13,807

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#2

Princeton University

Princeton, NJ

Graduation97%
Earnings$110,066
Net Price$6,128

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#3

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Cambridge, MA

Graduation96%
Earnings$143,372
Net Price$20,111

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Full Rankings

#1

Stanford University

Stanford, CA · 7,554 students · Private nonprofit

4% accepted 92% graduate $124,080 earnings
Stanford's full profile
#2

Princeton University

Princeton, NJ · 5,709 students · Private nonprofit

5% accepted 97% graduate $110,066 earnings
Princeton's full profile
#3

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Cambridge, MA · 4,535 students · Private nonprofit

5% accepted 96% graduate $143,372 earnings
Massachusetts's full profile
#4

University of Pennsylvania

Philadelphia, PA · 10,650 students · Private nonprofit

5% accepted 97% graduate $111,371 earnings
University's full profile
#5

CUNY Bernard M Baruch College

New York, NY · 16,154 students · Public

48% accepted 72% graduate $75,971 earnings
CUNY's full profile
#6

University of Chicago

Chicago, IL · 7,569 students · Private nonprofit

4% accepted 95% graduate $91,885 earnings
University's full profile
#7

Johns Hopkins University

Baltimore, MD · 5,693 students · Private nonprofit

6% accepted 94% graduate $87,555 earnings
Johns's full profile
#8

Rice University

Houston, TX · 4,776 students · Private nonprofit

8% accepted 95% graduate $89,718 earnings
Rice's full profile
#9

CUNY Hunter College

New York, NY · 16,289 students · Public

54% accepted 59% graduate $63,163 earnings
CUNY's full profile
#10

Brown University

Providence, RI · 7,226 students · Private nonprofit

5% accepted 96% graduate $93,487 earnings
Brown's full profile
#11

Vanderbilt University

Nashville, TN · 7,208 students · Private nonprofit

6% accepted 93% graduate $91,565 earnings
Vanderbilt's full profile
#12

Cornell University

Ithaca, NY · 15,995 students · Private nonprofit

9% accepted 95% graduate $104,043 earnings
Cornell's full profile
#13

Harvard University

Cambridge, MA · 7,601 students · Private nonprofit

4% accepted 97% graduate $101,817 earnings
Harvard's full profile
#14

Georgia Institute of Technology-Main Campus

Atlanta, GA · 18,785 students · Public

14% accepted 93% graduate $102,772 earnings
Georgia's full profile
#15

CUNY Queens College

Queens, NY · 12,550 students · Public

64% accepted 56% graduate $62,763 earnings
CUNY's full profile
#16

Wellesley College

Wellesley, MA · 2,300 students · Private nonprofit

14% accepted 91% graduate $84,803 earnings
Wellesley's full profile
#17

CUNY Brooklyn College

Brooklyn, NY · 10,543 students · Public

58% accepted 55% graduate $60,752 earnings
CUNY's full profile
#18

Duke University

Durham, NC · 6,442 students · Private nonprofit

6% accepted 96% graduate $97,800 earnings
Duke's full profile
#19

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Chapel Hill, NC · 20,752 students · Public

15% accepted 92% graduate $72,200 earnings
University's full profile
#20

Dartmouth College

Hanover, NH · 4,541 students · Private nonprofit

5% accepted 96% graduate $97,434 earnings
Dartmouth's full profile
#21

Williams College

Williamstown, MA · 2,076 students · Private nonprofit

8% accepted 95% graduate $88,665 earnings
Williams's full profile
#22

Washington University in St Louis

St. Louis, MO · 7,857 students · Private nonprofit

12% accepted 94% graduate $86,182 earnings
Washington's full profile
#23

University of Florida

Gainesville, FL · 35,629 students · Public

24% accepted 91% graduate $71,588 earnings
University's full profile
#24

Columbia University in the City of New York

New York, NY · 8,973 students · Private nonprofit

4% accepted 96% graduate $102,491 earnings
Columbia's full profile
#25

Northwestern University

Evanston, IL · 9,201 students · Private nonprofit

8% accepted 96% graduate $89,363 earnings
Northwestern's full profile
#26

Yale University

New Haven, CT · 6,758 students · Private nonprofit

4% accepted 96% graduate $100,533 earnings
Yale's full profile
#27

CUNY John Jay College of Criminal Justice

New York, NY · 11,590 students · Public

57% accepted 56% graduate $56,195 earnings
CUNY's full profile
#28

Pomona College

Claremont, CA · 1,666 students · Private nonprofit

7% accepted 93% graduate $77,779 earnings
Pomona's full profile
#29

New Jersey Institute of Technology

Newark, NJ · 9,019 students · Public

65% accepted 73% graduate $84,276 earnings
New's full profile
#30

Carnegie Mellon University

Pittsburgh, PA · 7,304 students · Private nonprofit

12% accepted 93% graduate $114,862 earnings
Carnegie's full profile
#31

Georgetown University

Washington, DC · 7,569 students · Private nonprofit

13% accepted 95% graduate $103,494 earnings
Georgetown's full profile
#32

The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art

New York, NY · 842 students · Private nonprofit

21% accepted 81% graduate $83,847 earnings
The's full profile
#33

Bowdoin College

Brunswick, ME · 1,873 students · Private nonprofit

7% accepted 95% graduate $82,735 earnings
Bowdoin's full profile
#34

Brigham Young University

Provo, UT · 32,952 students · Private nonprofit

68% accepted 82% graduate $75,790 earnings
Brigham's full profile
#35

East Texas A&M University

Commerce, TX · 9,912 students · Public

92% accepted 44% graduate $50,296 earnings
East's full profile
#36

Amherst College

Amherst, MA · 1,911 students · Private nonprofit

9% accepted 94% graduate $77,644 earnings
Amherst's full profile
#37

CUNY Lehman College

Bronx, NY · 10,696 students · Public

57% accepted 50% graduate $58,013 earnings
CUNY's full profile
#38

California Institute of Technology

Pasadena, CA · 987 students · Private nonprofit

3% accepted 94% graduate $128,566 earnings
California's full profile
#39

William & Mary

Williamsburg, VA · 7,055 students · Public

34% accepted 90% graduate $73,490 earnings
William's full profile
#40

Claremont McKenna College

Claremont, CA · 1,388 students · Private nonprofit

10% accepted 93% graduate $104,736 earnings
Claremont's full profile
#41

Boston College

Chestnut Hill, MA · 10,085 students · Private nonprofit

16% accepted 91% graduate $103,937 earnings
Boston's full profile
#42

Emory University

Atlanta, GA · 7,298 students · Private nonprofit

11% accepted 91% graduate $80,137 earnings
Emory's full profile
#43

University of Virginia's College at Wise

Wise, VA · 1,101 students · Public

29% accepted 48% graduate $45,325 earnings
University's full profile
#44

George Mason University

Fairfax, VA · 27,752 students · Public

87% accepted 69% graduate $76,343 earnings
George's full profile
#45

CUNY York College

Jamaica, NY · 4,345 students · Public

64% accepted 31% graduate $56,945 earnings
CUNY's full profile
#46

Colby College

Waterville, ME · 2,407 students · Private nonprofit

7% accepted 89% graduate $80,490 earnings
Colby's full profile
#47

Bay Path University

Longmeadow, MA · 1,108 students · Private nonprofit

85% accepted 51% graduate $55,383 earnings
Bay's full profile
#48

Southern Illinois University Edwardsville

Edwardsville, IL · 8,750 students · Public

98% accepted 56% graduate $56,346 earnings
Southern's full profile
#49

Haverford College

Haverford, PA · 1,430 students · Private nonprofit

12% accepted 90% graduate $79,966 earnings
Haverford's full profile
#50

Colgate University

Hamilton, NY · 3,180 students · Private nonprofit

14% accepted 91% graduate $85,139 earnings
Colgate's full profile

Sources & Citations

[1]

Chetty, R., Friedman, J., Saez, E., Turner, N., & Yagan, D. (2017). Mobility Report Cards: The Role of Colleges in Intergenerational Mobility. NBER Working Paper No. 23618. →

[2]

Chetty, R., Jackson, M., Kuchler, T., et al. (2022). Social Capital I: Measurement and Associations with Economic Mobility. Nature, 608, 108-121. →

[3]

U.S. Department of Education. College Scorecard Data. Federal Student Aid, National Center for Education Statistics. →

DK

David Krug

Co-Founder, CollegeRanker

David Krug is the co-founder of CollegeRanker and a data systems architect focused on making institutional research accessible to families. He builds the data pipelines and ranking algorithms that power CollegeRanker, drawing from federal datasets and Raj Chetty's Opportunity Insights research to measure what traditional rankings ignore: whether a college actually changes a family's economic trajectory.

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