BMCC Receives High Ranking for Student-Mobility

Borough of Manhattan Community College (BMCC/CUNY) ranks No. 3 among two-year public institutions, with the “Highest Student-Mobility Rates, 2014,” according to an article published by the Chronicle of Higher Education on August 19. BMCC, which scored a mobility rate of 6.1 percent, was one of several CUNY’s campuses that made a strong showing on the rankings.

The Chronicle’s list was drawn from a widely-reported study of colleges’ impact on social mobility by a team led by Stanford University economics professor Raj Chetty. The team’s 2017 study, “Mobility Report Cards: The Role of Colleges in Intergenerational Mobility,” tracked students from nearly every U.S. college, including non-graduates, and measured their subsequent earnings against millions of anonymous tax filings and financial-aid records. The team of researchers looked to see how well colleges helped students whose parents were in the bottom 20 percent of income levels reach the top 20 percent for individual earnings.

Nine CUNY campuses were in the top 20 for mobility rates among four-year public colleges with at -east 300 students in the average birth cohort from 1980 to 1982, and two CUNY campuses were in the top five among two-year public colleges.

“With social mobility increasingly used to determine which colleges are contributing most to the American Dream, CUNY’s singular quality, affordability and diversity set it apart as perhaps the most potent engine of economic advancement in the United States,” said Interim Chancellor Vita C. Rabinowitz.   “At CUNY, we take enormous pride in the University’s role in helping generations of low-income, underserved and immigrant students succeed.”

BMCC Provost and Senior Vice President of Academic Affairs Karrin E. Wilks says the College’s ranking is a point of pride.

“BMCC’s outstanding mobility ranking reflects our deep commitment to student success and to our collective belief in the transformative power of education. All faculty and staff are to be commended for their contributions to transforming the lives of our students, and for furthering our strategic vision that BMCC will be a leading community college nationwide in advancing equity and social justice,” said Wilks.