San Diego State University ranked No. 16 on Forbes’ 2023 rankings of the Top 25 Public Colleges in the U.S. and No. 43 in the magazine’s annual list of top 500 colleges, up 20 spots from last year.

Forbes, a business news magazine, said the list “showcases 500 of the finest U.S. colleges, ranked using data on student success, return on investment and alumni influence.” Forbes said it used data on graduation rates, graduate salaries, and outcomes for low-income students, among additional factors, to arrive at its rankings, recently released.

The magazine also considered retention rates, earmarks of success such as the number of Fulbright scholars, and the college and universities’ “return on investment,” a comparison of post-graduation earnings and the cost of obtaining a degree.

“San Diego State University continues to rise in the quality of our educational experience and in shaping a better future for every one of our graduates,” said SDSU president Adela de la Torre. “Our students are succeeding at unprecedented rates, and our growing partnerships across the public and private sectors are creating tremendous employment and social-mobility opportunities for our family of nearly 500,000 SDSU alumni.”

The news comes against a backdrop of milestones and achievements this year for SDSU, including the following: another record year of research grant and contract dollars – an increase of more than 40% over the past five years – led by faculty, who often engage students in active research; approval to launch a new independent Doctor of Public Health (DrPH) in the CSU, including at SDSU; the opening of SDSU’s Basic Needs Center; and the university’s first-ever Truman Scholar.

Forbes’ selection process began with assembling a “list of U.S. colleges that educate undergraduates according to their Carnegie Classification.” This status recognizes “very high research activity” and is shared by less than 150 U.S. universities. SDSU is currently classified as “R2” for “high research activity,” putting it among the top 8% of the nearly 4,000 institutions of higher education tracked by Carnegie.

The magazine also used information from third-party databases that record graduation debt and retention rates. SDSU already has surpassed California State University’s (CSU) systemwide graduation rate goals for 2025, set in 2016 in a plan for all 23 campuses called Graduation Initiative 2025.

While private schools such as Princeton (No. 1) and Harvard (No. 9) tend to score the highest on the Forbes’ list of top 500 colleges, California landed seven campuses on the top 25 public colleges list, SDSU being the only university within the CSU system to make the top 25 list.

“The group of 25 includes some of the oldest public universities in the United States with histories that date back to the 1700s, such as the University of Georgia in Athens and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill,” Forbes’ said.

California Colleges on Forbes’ 2023 Top 25 Public Colleges

University of California Berkeley (#1)

University of California, Los Angeles (#2)

University of California, San Diego (#3)

University of California, Santa Barbara (#5)

University of California, Davis (#14)

San Diego State University (#16)

University of California, Irvine (#23)

California Colleges on Forbes’ 2023 Top 500 Colleges

University of California Berkeley (#5)

University of California, Los Angeles (#7)

University of California, San Diego (#21)

University of California, Santa Barbara (#24)

University of California, Davis (#37)

San Diego State University (#43)

University of California, Irvine (#61)

University of California, Riverside (#75)

California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (#83)

San Jose State University (#87)

California State University, Fullerton (#90)

University of California, Santa Cruz (#92)

Photo by Natali Gonzalez