August 8, 2006

UCSD Ranked Sixth Best U.S. University
by Washington Monthly’s 2006 College Guide

By Pat JaCoby

In rankings based on how much a school benefits the country, the University of California, San Diego placed sixth among 150 U.S. universities in the Washington Monthly 2006 College Guide.

The second annual Washington Monthly Guide based its rankings on “reasonable indicators of how much a school is benefiting the country” using three categories: Community Service, Scientific and Humanistic Research, and Social Mobility. The editors noted that “by devising a set of criteria different from those of other college guides--which rank according to academic excellence--we arrived at sharply different results.”

UCSD rose to sixth in this year’s rankings from eighth place in the 2005 Guide.

The top 10 universities, in order, were MIT, UC Berkeley, Penn State, UCLA, Texas A&M, UC San Diego, Stanford, Cornell, South Carolina State and UC Davis.

The Washington Monthly editors noted that “by our yardstick, UC Berkeley is about the best thing for America we can find. It’s good by all measurements. The same goes for the rest of the schools in the UC system, four of which make our top 10, the rest of which make our top 80.”

Media Contact: Pat JaCoby, 858 534-7404