US News ranks Cal Lutheran 8th in West

(THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. — Sept. 13, 2021) Propelled by an increasing graduation rate, California Lutheran University has risen to its highest spot ever in the U.S. News Best Colleges rankings — eighth among the 130 ranked regional universities throughout 15 Western states.

Cal Lutheran jumped several spots to its highest ranking on the Best Colleges for Veterans list — second. This year, U.S. News gave extra credit to universities like Cal Lutheran that provide the maximum Yellow Ribbon funding to all eligible students to pay for expenses not covered by the GI Bill.

The university ranked fourth in the West for Best Undergraduate Teaching.

The list released today includes regional universities that provide a full range of undergraduate majors and master’s degrees and a few doctoral programs. Among these universities in the West, Cal Lutheran also ranked:

• 14th on the Best Value Schools list, which factors in academic quality and cost after accounting for total expenses and financial aid

• 56th among Top Performers on Social Mobility

The university also was among the 17 in the West on the unranked A-Plus Schools for B Students list. To qualify, colleges need to be among the top-ranked overall, have a high average freshman retention rate and admit a meaningful proportion of students who didn’t get straight A’s in high school.

The overall U.S. News rankings consider student outcomes, faculty resources, academic reputation, per-student spending, admissions selectivity, graduate indebtedness and alumni giving.

Cal Lutheran also moved up on Washington Monthly’s socially conscious alternative to the U.S. News rankings that were released Aug. 30. In the magazine’s College Rankings, Cal Lutheran jumped 37 spots to 134th among master’s universities nationwide for contributing to the public good through social mobility, service and research. The university went up 16 spots to 63rd among the magazine’s list of Best Bang for the Buck Colleges in the West for helping non-wealthy students obtain marketable degrees at affordable prices.

Cal Lutheran is based in Thousand Oaks, California, with additional locations in Woodland Hills, Westlake Village, Oxnard, Santa Maria and Berkeley. Designated a Hispanic-Serving Institution by the U.S. Department of Education, Cal Lutheran serves about 4,000 students from across the nation and around the world from a diversity of backgrounds, cultures and faiths.