Washington Monthly’s rankings look beyond prestige to ask which colleges serve students well, keep costs manageable, and create opportunity.
I was honored to join the Washington Monthly and New America to mark the release of Washington Monthly’s 2026 College Guide and Rankings.
Lumina Foundation has supported Washington Monthly since 2009, and for good reason: its rankings bring a different lens to how we define excellence in higher education. Washington Monthly published its first college rankings in 2005 after examining the shortcomings of more traditional rankings.
While the methodology has evolved, the basic goal has remained consistent: Rather than reward institutions primarily for wealth, prestige, and selectivity, what are colleges actually doing for students and for the country?
You can see that approach in its flagship Best Colleges for Your Tuition—and Tax—Dollars ranking, its Best Colleges for Research ranking, and its new Best Colleges for Rural America ranking.
That approach especially matters now.
Students and families are asking hard questions about cost and whether a degree will pay off. Employers are asking whether graduates have the skills they need. Artificial intelligence is reshaping both how students learn and the work they need to be prepared to do.
Those conversations should be grounded in evidence and good information.
What we measure signals what we truly value.
And what we measure shapes the information students and families have when they make one of the most consequential decisions of their lives.
Washington Monthly’s rankings ask whether institutions enroll and serve students from diverse backgrounds, whether students graduate with manageable debt, and whether the education they receive helps them build better lives and contribute to their communities. Those questions often point us toward institutions that do not dominate the national conversation—regional public universities, Hispanic-serving institutions, and colleges serving rural students and communities.
There is something deeply American about that focus.
Our history includes repeated efforts—imperfect and incomplete, but enormously consequential—to broaden access to education beyond a privileged few: from the growth of public schools to land-grant colleges to the GI Bill to the landmark federal education laws of 1965.
The institutions recognized in the Washington Monthly rankings are part of that tradition. They are opening doors and creating opportunity, not simply benefiting from long-established prestige.
That focus on value is also central to Lumina Foundation’s work.
When Lumina set its first national attainment goal in 2008, about 38 percent of working-age adults held a college degree or other high-quality credential. Today, that number is about 55 percent.
That is real progress. But attainment alone is not enough.
Our Goal 2040 is that by 2040, at least 75 percent of adults in the U.S. labor force will have a college degree or other credential of value leading to economic prosperity.
Those two words—of value—are critical.
A credential should lead somewhere. It should help people build careers, provide for themselves and their families, adapt as the economy changes, and contribute to their communities and nation.
And there is real urgency to showing, not just telling, students and families where higher education is delivering that value.
In a Lumina-Gallup survey, only 38 percent of Americans reported having a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in higher education, down from 57 percent in 2015. Yet our surveys also show that the vast majority of current students are confident their education is giving them the skills they need for the jobs they want.
We should take that disconnect seriously.
The answer is not to tell skeptical students and families that they are wrong. Cost is real. Debt is real. Families are right to ask whether what they are paying for will prepare students for the world they are entering.
The institutions highlighted in these rankings can help re-engage students and families who have become most skeptical of higher education by showing that college can still be affordable and accessible, and lead to real opportunity.
Higher education has to make sure more institutions deliver on that promise.
As I wrote earlier this year, the bachelor’s degree isn’t obsolete—but it does need an upgrade.
At its best, a bachelor’s degree does more than prepare someone for a first job. It gives graduates the knowledge and capabilities to build a career, adapt as the world changes, and continue learning throughout their lives.
As AI reshapes learning and work, colleges should more intentionally connect classroom learning to careers, expand meaningful work-based learning, engage employers, and ensure graduates can think critically, solve complex problems, communicate clearly, exercise judgment, and use new technologies effectively and ethically.
Those capabilities are not becoming less important because of AI. They are becoming more important.
The challenge before us is to make higher ed better, not defend it as it exists today..
That requires information that helps students, families, and policymakers distinguish between reputation and results. The Washington Monthly rankings help broaden our definition of excellence and refocus the conversation on the question that matters most:
What value are we creating for students—and for the country?