UCO Moves Up to Top 10% in National Social Mobility Ranking

Dec. 2, 2021

Media Contact: Kyla Carter, Marketing and Communications Coordinator, UCO University Communications, 405-974-2127, kcarter25@uco.edu

UCO Moves Up to Top 10% in National Social Mobility Ranking

CollegeNET ranks the University of Central Oklahoma among the top higher education institutions in the nation for social mobility according to its recent 2021 national ranking.

Central ranked 150 out of more than 1,500 colleges and universities in the United States according to their contribution to economic mobility. This puts Central in the top 10% nationally for social mobility, an increase from the 2020 ranking in which UCO placed in the top 12%, and as the highest ranked institution in Oklahoma. 

“We are incredibly proud to have this nationally recognized data and ranking as evidence of living our mission to empower students. UCO offers students a promising path to socioeconomic success and a runway to a bright future,” said Patti Neuhold-Ravikumar, UCO president.

“The university community is committed to keeping higher education accessible and affordable. We also ranked nationally as a top online college for 2022, further confirmation that you can attend UCO anywhere at a nationally competitive price and have high-quality interaction with faculty invested in student learning. The facets of this ranking tell the important story that we are optimizing our resources to reach more people who need us, which benefits families, our economy and our state.”

The Social Mobility Index (SMI) measures to what extent a higher education institution accepts students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds and graduates them into well-paying jobs, based on factors such as cost of attendance, economic background of the student body, graduation rates and early-career salaries.

Despite the hardships brought on by the pandemic, UCO focused on economic and social advancement by keeping tuition relatively low, increasing the enrollment of students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds by 3.7% and improving the graduation score from 48.3 to 50.5 within a year. 

According to CollegeNET, a high SMI ranking means a school contributes in a responsible way to solving the problem of declining economic mobility in the U.S.

To view a complete list of CollegeNet’s rankings, visit www.socialmobilityindex.org.

For more information about Central, visit www.uco.edu.

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Editor's Note: Download art associated with this release at https://media.uco.edu/press/uploads/2021/11/1fe2347.jpg

Cutline: CollegeNET ranked the University of Central Oklahoma among the top higher education institutions in the nation for social mobility in 2021. Central ranked 150 out of more than 1,500 colleges and universities in the U.S. according to their contribution to economic mobility. This placed Central in the top 10% nationally for social mobility and as the highest ranked institution in Oklahoma. Pictured, a group of UCO students walk on campus.