New national data places the University of St. Thomas top in Minnesota when it comes to representing the communities it serves and setting up its graduates for higher-paying careers.
St. Thomas – the state’s largest private university – was designated an “Opportunity College and University” in the newly redesigned Carnegie Classifications of the nation’s higher education institutions. Institutions included in this designation (under the “Student Access and Earnings” classification) meet thresholds for providing students access to higher education while simultaneously preparing them for economic success. Specifically, these institutions must achieve certain scores to show their student population reflects the demographic makeup of their service areas, and that their alumni earn 50% more than comparison groups eight years after enrollment.
St. Thomas alums earn the highest eight-year median annual income, $70,906, than alumni of any of the other 31 Minnesota universities and colleges on the list. The classification’s access metric, meanwhile, specifically looks at the number of Pell Grant recipients and underrepresented student groups when determining whether an institution’s student population reflects the communities they serve.
Opportunity in action at St. Thomas
This recognition follows years of universitywide efforts to make a St. Thomas education more accessible for all students. This is reflected in its designations as a First-Gen Forward institution and as one that is military-friendly and age-friendly. St. Thomas programs like the Schulze Innovation Scholarships, GHR Fellows, and Dougherty Family College, a two-year associate degree program, also serve as national models for affordability and inclusive student support. Additionally, starting in fall 2025, St. Thomas will utilize a historic gift to award 250 scholarships based on need to undergraduate students across any major. Fundraising efforts have allowed St. Thomas to provide nearly $220 million in direct aid support to students who may not otherwise be able to afford a college education.
The Carnegie Classification system has long been regarded as the gold standard for analyzing the U.S. higher education landscape. The Student Access and Earnings Classification category is one of two new 2025 Carnegie Classifications published by the American Council on Education (ACE) and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, with the other being the Institutional Classification, which replaces the traditional “Basic Classification.”
By including new outcome-based metrics such as access and earnings, the updated classifications signal a growing national interest in tracking how colleges contribute to economic and social mobility.
The 2025 updates were developed in collaboration with economists, higher education experts, and thousands of institutional stakeholders over a three-year period. The classifications include interactive data visualizations that allow users to compare institutions by mission and student outcomes.
For St. Thomas, the recognition affirms the university’s strategic priorities and mission to advance the common good by preparing students not only to succeed professionally but also to lead lives of meaning and impact.
