Georgia State Ranked Highly for Social Mobility, Research, Service

ATLANTA — The editors of Washington Monthly rank Georgia State among the top universities in the nation contributing to the public good.

In its 2023 National University Rankings, Georgia State ranked 100 out of the more than 1,400 universities measured for their impact on social mobility, research and public service. Georgia State ranked fifth overall for its Pell performance, a measure of the university’s commitment to educating a diverse group of students.

Fifty-seven percent of Georgia State’s full-time, first-time, first-year students in fall 2022 were Pell-eligible.

“Our rankings consist of three equally weighted portions: social mobility, research, and community and national service,” the editors of the magazine said. “This means that top-ranked colleges needed to be excellent across the full breadth of our measures, rather than excelling in just one measure.”

Georgia State ranked 85^th for social mobility, 139^th for research and 186^th for service.

The social mobility ranking takes into account factors including an institution’s eight-year graduation rate, predicted earnings by graduates and net price of attendance for families earning below $75,000 per year.

The research ranking examines factors including research expenditures, the number of science and engineering Ph.D.s awarded and faculty accolades.

The service measure takes into account factors such as voting engagement, the percentage of federal work-study funds an institution spends on service and the percentage of graduates with service-oriented majors.

“A great university not only enriches the communities and broader society it engages with but also provides access to opportunities to increase knowledge and understanding of the world around us,” said Nicolle Parsons-Pollard, Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs. “Georgia State exemplifies this commitment, and as we chart our strategic path for the coming decade, we are committed to accelerating our efforts in providing access to opportunity regardless of background and expanding research, scholarship and service to the communities of which we are a part.”

While 57 percent of incoming first-year students were Pell-eligible in fall 2022, two-thirds of those at Georgia State’s Perimeter College met the qualifications for the grant. Of all of Georgia State’s undergraduate students that semester, more than half (55 percent) were eligible.

The university’s highly selective Honors College in recent years has been increasing the number of Pell-eligible students among its ranks, offering unique opportunities for internships, assistantships and research. Since 2018, the percentage of Honors College students receiving Pell grants has grown from 26 percent to 36.5 percent.

“Our admission process recognizes that not all high school students have the same opportunities to demonstrate achievement in high school,” Honors College Dean Sarah Cook said. “A comprehensive review allows us to evaluate students relative to their opportunities. The result is an Honors College rich in students with broad life experiences, coming from 24 states and countries, and from urban to rural communities.

“Our students continue to earn national fellowships and scholarships including research awards through the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation, and Georgia State has recently been added to the list of prestigious institutions who have received the Stamps Foundation Scholarship,” she said.

For more information about the Washington Monthly rankings, click here.

For more about the Honors College, click here.