Forbes Ranks Cal Poly Pomona Among Nation’s Best

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Forbes Magazine ranks Cal Poly Pomona among the nation's best public schools, and a top performer in California and the Western U.S.
Forbes Magazine ranks Cal Poly Pomona among the nation’s best public schools, and a top performer in California and the Western U.S.

Cal Poly Pomona is one of the nation’s best public schools, and a top performer in California and the Western U.S., according to Forbes Magazine’s 2016 America’s Top Colleges rankings.

The university ranks No. 85 among American public colleges and universities and No. 53 in the Western U.S. It is joined on that list with 17 other Cal State campuses and is behind only Cal Poly San Luis Obispo (#32) and San Diego State (#44).

A list curated by Redwood City-Woodside Patch from those rankings puts Cal Poly Pomona at No. 29 in California.

The intent of the rankings is to measure the return-on-investment, or “what are students getting out of college?” writes Caroline Howard, a Forbes staff writer.

The ranking methodology includes the following categories:

  • Post-graduate success: A combination of data from Payscale.com, and the U.S. Department of Education’s College Scorecard
  • Student debt: Average student debt, student loan default rates and percentage of students with federal loans
  • Student satisfaction: A combination of the percentage of students who transfer out of a school and professor rankings on RateMyProfessors
  • Graduation rate: Percentage of students who graduate within four years
  • Academic success: Percentage of students who win national scholarships or go on to earn a Ph.D. after graduation.

““We are honored to be recognized as a premier institution that provides high quality programs that prepare student to be leaders in their field,” says Provost Sylvia A. Alva.

To see an in-depth explanation of how the ranking was developed, visit the Forbes website.