Among California institutions, Whittier is noted among the top five national liberal arts colleges for social mobility of its graduates, and in the top 10 for student diversity. According to the report, social mobility measures how well schools graduated students who received federal Pell Grants—those typically coming from households whose family incomes are less than $50,000 annually.
The U.S. News & World Report rankings methodology places colleges and universities in various categories and looks at factors such as outcomes, graduation and retention rates, social mobility, faculty resources, financial resources, student outcomes, and alumni giving for its scoring. The data for the 2020 edition of the report was gathered in spring 2019.
Earlier this month, Whittier ranked in the top 15% of colleges and universities for diversity and inclusion in The Wall Street Journal/Times Higher Education college rankings.
