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Washington Monthly Best Master's University, 2018.

Washington Monthly magazine has ranked SUNY Geneseo second overall among 695 master’s universities in the nation for its contributions to the public good across three broad categories: social mobility, research and service. It’s the sixth year in a row that Geneseo has been in the top five schools in the rankings.

Geneseo also ranked No. 101 in the Northeast for “Best Bang for the Buck” among the 400 colleges and universities in the category.

“Advancing the public good is part of the fabric of the Geneseo experience, and we are rightfully proud to be recognized, yet again, by a rankings system that distinguishes us based on our dearly held values,” said Meaghan Arena, Geneseo’s vice president for enrollment management.

The magazine’s 2018 rankings include 695 colleges in its master’s universities category, which includes schools that offer comprehensive undergraduate programs, some master's programs but few, if any, doctoral programs. Geneseo offers master’s degrees in education and accounting.

Part of Washington Monthly’s annual rankings is to identify colleges and universities that “instill a sense of service and public obligation while producing groundbreaking research.” The magazine defines social mobility as recruiting and graduating low-income students and helping them earn degrees. The research category comprises the production of cutting-edge scholarship and students who go on to earn doctorates. Service was defined as encouraging students to give something back to their country. The overall score is determined by combining the scores of all three categories.

Geneseo fared particularly well in the research category, ranking seventh in the number of alumni who go on to earn a doctorate and in the Peace Corps category, ranking eighth in the number of alumni who serve in the Peace Corps, relative to size.

Washington Monthly is a nonprofit magazine that is sponsored in part by the Annie E. Casey Foundation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The magazine has published its rankings since 2005.