How economically-mobile are students coming out of Vermont colleges? New ranking shows.

April Barton, Burlington Free Press
·2 min read

How did Vermont colleges fare on a higher education ranking system based on economic mobility?

The new college ranking system created by the think tank, Third Way, takes prestige and selectivity out of the mix and measures schools' ability to change the student's financial station through attending college.

On the U.S. News & World Report ranking Harvard University tied for number 2, but on the economic mobility index it ranked 847th. This was due to the fact that many Harvard students come from privileged backgrounds and maintain a similar level of wealth upon entering the workforce.

The schools that made the top 10 on the economic mobility index include various campuses in the California State University system, Texas A&M International University, The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley and CUNY (City University of New York) Lehman College and John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

Snow is visible at the welcome sign for Norwich University in Northfield on Saturday, May 9, 2020.
Snow is visible at the welcome sign for Norwich University in Northfield on Saturday, May 9, 2020.

According to the compilers of the data, Hispanic-serving institutions in California, Texas and New York as well as Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), performed well on the economic mobility index by providing a path to the middle class for many who came in as low- to moderate-income students.

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So, how did Vermont colleges stack up among the 1,320 institutions listed?

  • Norwich University ranked 560

  • Middlebury College ranked 629

  • University of Vermont ranked 745

  • Castleton University ranked 746

  • Saint Michael's College ranked 904

  • Champlain College ranked 946

  • Northern Vermont University ranked 1,066

  • New England Culinary Institute ranked 1,253

The list included institutions offering at least a bachelor's degree program. Some Vermont colleges that met that criteria, including Bennington College, Vermont Technical College, Goddard College, Landmark College and Sterling College were missing from the list.

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Contact reporter April Barton at abarton@freepressmedia.com or 802-660-1854. Follow her on Twitter @aprildbarton.

This article originally appeared on Burlington Free Press: How Vermont colleges fared on new ranking looking at economic mobility