While the rankings for U.S. News & World Report seem to get most of the attention, perhaps there’s another lens we should put on the ranking process.  Paul Glastris, editor-in-chief of Washington Monthly, once worked there and sensed that there is a better scoring system to reflect the needs of more students across the country, so he designed one.  His is not based on selectivity, endowment size, and name recognition.  Rather it reflects well on the colleges and universities that focus on social mobility, affordability, and provide educations that lead to careers in public service and jobs that allow students to pay off their student debt. You may find it interesting that schools with “State” in their name do very well.  The September/October issue of his magazine features great articles about where you can get the best bang for the buck, a university that’s breaking the mold by doing the opposite of what the trends are in higher education and how to escape what’s called “Higher Ed’s Bermuda Triangle.”  This podcast breaks it all down and toplines what these articles explore in depth.  It’s all worth a listen and a read.