September 18, 2023
St. Mary’s University also ranks top in San Antonio for social mobility
St. Mary’s University is just one spot away from the top ranking in the West region in the Best Value Schools rankings by U.S. News & World Report, which today released the 2024 edition of its annual Best Colleges guide.
“Which colleges and universities offer students the best value? The calculation used here takes into account a school’s academic quality, as indicated by its 2024 U.S. News Best Colleges ranking, and the 2022-2023 net cost of attendance for an out-of-state student who received the average level of need-based financial aid,” stated the U.S. News description of the ranking. “The higher the quality of the program and the lower the cost, the better the deal.”
In addition to ranking No. 2 in the West region in the Best Value Schools, St. Mary’s also tied for the No. 14 spot out of 120 regional universities in the West for academic quality.
The University has been included in the list of top-tier regional universities for 30 consecutive years. Students are drawn to the personalized attention St. Mary’s is able to deliver through its small class sizes and low student-to-faculty ratio of 11 to 1.
Forbes also recently named St. Mary’s University to its Top Colleges 2023 list. St. Mary’s landed 23rd in Texas. The Forbes list “recognizes the top U.S. colleges that have demonstrated impressive graduation rates, high graduate salaries and great outcomes for low-income students.”
More rankings: Social mobility, veterans, law
U.S. News introduced a ranking for Top Performers on Social Mobility in 2019 to evaluate which schools best serve underrepresented students. This measurement evaluates how well schools graduated students who received federal Pell Grants. Students receiving these grants typically come from households with family incomes of less than $50,000 annually, according to the methodology.
St. Mary’s ranked No. 20 in the West for social mobility among regional universities. St. Mary’s also ranked first in San Antonio in this analysis for the fifth year in a row.
This year, St. Mary’s also ranked top in San Antonio and rose to the No. 8 spot in the West among the Best Colleges for Veterans. The ranking includes schools that take part in federal initiatives to aid veterans and active-duty service members in funding their education. St. Mary’s University is a Yellow Ribbon School.
For the third year in a row, the St. Mary’s University School of Law Advocacy Programs ranked in the top 20 in the nation by U.S. News & World Report — moving up to tie for the No. 14 spot in the 2023 Best Graduate School Rankings released in March.
In July, U.S. News & World Report named the St. Mary’s University School of Law to its short list of racially and ethnically diverse law schools.
The list included 23 law schools from across the U.S. and its territories. Students identifying with minority racial and ethnic backgrounds composed nearly 55% of the J.D. student body at St. Mary’s Law in 2022. Of the 760 students, 48% identified as Hispanic.
U.S. News also ranked the University’s undergraduate Engineering programs.
Find out more about St. Mary’s University’s top rankings on the rankings webpage.