UC Santa Cruz ranks second best for social mobility

A new study by U.S. News and World Report ranks UC Santa Cruz as the second-best university in the country for social mobility.

The ranking is the first of its kind, and it measures how well schools graduated students who received federal Pell Grants. Those are usually awarded to students who come from households that earn less than $50,000 per year.

“There is profound value in earning a college degree with lifelong impacts,” Chancellor Cynthia Larive said. “UC Santa Cruz is proud to be recognized for our efforts to provide access to a high-quality educational experience and especially for the impact this experience provides to low income and first-generation students over their lifetime.”

The university said the University of California is an equalizer for students from low-income families and that they go on to earn as much as students who come from middle-income families. Those earnings are also expected to double by a decade after graduation.

UC Santa Cruz has more than 5,700 students from low-income backgrounds, and only 10 universities in the U.S. had a higher diversity index score than UC Santa Cruz.