Smart Money´s College Value Rankings
Stuart Nachbar
December 17, 2008
As I was about to call it a day from blogging, I received a link to an article on college value rankings that will also appear in the print edition of Smart Money magazine. Check out the story at: http://www.smartmoney.com/Personal-Finance/College-Planning/The-Best-Colleges-For-Making-Money/.
This is not an academic ranking of colleges and universities; it is a financial value ranking of the top five public, liberal arts and Ivy League schools by "payback," meaning a graduate´s income fifteen years after graduation divided by the tuition investment in the school. Such a ranking is likely to favor the best subsidized schools that also offer a large selection of high paying pre-professional (aka: jobs directly after college) majors. Those graduates will have more high-paying work experience than their liberal arts peers who postponed graduate or professional school until later in their working lives.
It is no surprise that publicly-supported universities such as the Georgia, Texas A&M and the University of Texas-Austin top these rankings; no private school ranked among their top eighteen schools. I´m sure Cooper Union, a venerable New York arts and technical school, would rank high; it charges no tuition at all. But there are fewer students, alumni and majors, and fewer employment contacts at Cooper Union than there are at the larger state universities. So that school will appear lower down the ladder.
I don´t know why the magazine bothered with these rankings. The high school senior considering a pre-professional degree program will have their home state university on their list; with rare exceptions it is the least cost option. But not all states subsidize their public universities at the same level. In fact, their governors and legislators cut the subsidy in bad times. And in a bad economy, students are also less likely to go to school far from home. In the magazine analysis, the best valued school is the least cost flagship state school in a state that has a diverse and strong economy. But what´s the message: move out of New Hampshire, Pennsylvania or Vermont if you can get into the University of Georgia?
In addition, it is silly to consider out-of-state students in a value equation. Not every state university admits the same percentage of students from out-of-state. Some schools, like Michigan and New Hampshire charge out-of-state tuition close to private schools; they are less interested in subsidizing out-of-state students. The Texas schools take less than ten percent of their student body from outside the Lone Star State, while Georgia Tech draws forty percent of its undergraduates from outside Georgia. An education at a top Texas university might be accessible and affordable to a top-performing Texas resident, but not to applicants from other states.
If a magazine wants to look at affordability, it should compare apples to apples, not apples to oranges. Stick with comparing the private schools on a value basis; they are less likely to place admissions restrictions based on geography and more likely to compete based on their ability to subsidize tuition for their students on a case-by-case basis. Don´t try to say that one state school is a better value than another, because they are not equally accessible to all top-performing student applicants.
Contact Stuart Nachbar at http://www.EducatedQuest.com , a blog on education politics, policy and technology or read about his first book, The Sex Ed Chronicles, a novel on education and politics in 1980 New Jersey, at http://www.SexEdChronicles.com .
This is not an academic ranking of colleges and universities; it is a financial value ranking of the top five public, liberal arts and Ivy League schools by "payback," meaning a graduate´s income fifteen years after graduation divided by the tuition investment in the school. Such a ranking is likely to favor the best subsidized schools that also offer a large selection of high paying pre-professional (aka: jobs directly after college) majors. Those graduates will have more high-paying work experience than their liberal arts peers who postponed graduate or professional school until later in their working lives.
It is no surprise that publicly-supported universities such as the Georgia, Texas A&M and the University of Texas-Austin top these rankings; no private school ranked among their top eighteen schools. I´m sure Cooper Union, a venerable New York arts and technical school, would rank high; it charges no tuition at all. But there are fewer students, alumni and majors, and fewer employment contacts at Cooper Union than there are at the larger state universities. So that school will appear lower down the ladder.
I don´t know why the magazine bothered with these rankings. The high school senior considering a pre-professional degree program will have their home state university on their list; with rare exceptions it is the least cost option. But not all states subsidize their public universities at the same level. In fact, their governors and legislators cut the subsidy in bad times. And in a bad economy, students are also less likely to go to school far from home. In the magazine analysis, the best valued school is the least cost flagship state school in a state that has a diverse and strong economy. But what´s the message: move out of New Hampshire, Pennsylvania or Vermont if you can get into the University of Georgia?
In addition, it is silly to consider out-of-state students in a value equation. Not every state university admits the same percentage of students from out-of-state. Some schools, like Michigan and New Hampshire charge out-of-state tuition close to private schools; they are less interested in subsidizing out-of-state students. The Texas schools take less than ten percent of their student body from outside the Lone Star State, while Georgia Tech draws forty percent of its undergraduates from outside Georgia. An education at a top Texas university might be accessible and affordable to a top-performing Texas resident, but not to applicants from other states.
If a magazine wants to look at affordability, it should compare apples to apples, not apples to oranges. Stick with comparing the private schools on a value basis; they are less likely to place admissions restrictions based on geography and more likely to compete based on their ability to subsidize tuition for their students on a case-by-case basis. Don´t try to say that one state school is a better value than another, because they are not equally accessible to all top-performing student applicants.
Contact Stuart Nachbar at http://www.EducatedQuest.com , a blog on education politics, policy and technology or read about his first book, The Sex Ed Chronicles, a novel on education and politics in 1980 New Jersey, at http://www.SexEdChronicles.com .