Credit: Vanderbilt University
Vanderbilt UniversityCollege Decision Day is fast approaching. High school seniors, transfer students and their families will soon make one of the most important personal and financial decisions of their lives: What schools are worth the investment?
With prices topping $80,000 for a public 4-year college degree and $180,000 for their private counterparts, selecting an undergraduate school is one of the biggest financial decisions a typical American high school student and her family will make. Yet for too many years, weighing a college’s value has been stymied at soft metrics such reputation and selectivity. As compelling as this is, it cedes all power to university admissions algorithms and the college-prep industrial complex.
The question we begin with is not “what's the 'best' school?" but whether a college will deliver a meaningful return on investment. We offer an answer. The FORBES 2017 Best Value College ranking indexes 300 schools that deliver the best bang for the tuition buck based on tuition costs, school quality, post-grad earnings, student debt and graduation success. We used data collected from the U.S. Department of Education's College Scorecard as well as PayScale, the world's largest salary database.
A Google search of "is college worth it?" yields nearly 300 million hits. While that's a pretty good time stamp of the current cynicism against the tidal wave of college costs -- coupled with massive collective (nearly $1.4 trillion) and personal student debt ($37,172 for 2016 grads with loans) and the surge in post-high school alternatives such as coding camps and digital portfolios of marketable skills sets -- it's more abstract than actual. A college degree is still a near universal aspiration. Federal data reveals enrollment among 18 to 24-year-olds in four-year degree programs hit a high of 40%. In the case of parents, 94% say they expect their children to attend college, according to the Pew Research Center.
For many students and their families, the price of a degree is as important a factor in deciding where to go as its quality. Knowing where you can get the most quality for each tuition dollar spent is the goal of this year’s Best Value ranking.
The Top 10
University of California, Berkeley is the No. 1 Best Value College for the second year in a row, followed by UCLA and Princeton University. The top 10 include two more U.C. schools -- U.C. Irvine (No. 8) and U.C. Davis (No. 9). University of Florida, the South’s only school in the top 10, comes in at No. 4. The super-elite schools make a strong showing, with Harvard University, MIT and Stanford University at Nos. 5, 6 and 7, respectively. Brigham Young University in Provo, UT, rounds out the top at No. 10.
We've tapped into something very interesting here. Private Northeast institutions have lost their monopoly on the higher education marketplace. More than half of the top Best Value Colleges are clustered in the West and 5 of the 10 are public schools (four from the enviable U.C. system). And all are highly active research hives with outstanding programs in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).
STEM and Liberal Arts
Research universities make a strong showing in the top 100 Best Value colleges, taking 70% of the spots. For example, Caltech, Johns Hopkins University, Virginia Tech and SUNY University at Buffalo show at No. 19, 40, 80 and 96, respectively. Many of the baccalaureate colleges in the top half are also STEM-oriented: Cooper Union (No. 61) and Harvey Mudd College (No. 103) to name two.
This is a practical issue. Forty percent of bachelor's degrees earned by men and 29% earned by women (mind the gender gap) are now in science and engineering, driven largely by growth in the "hard sciences." Thank the explosion of technology and drive for competitive innovation in all industries, along with federal and state incentives (such as performance-based funding), for this increase. STEM is where the jobs (and bigger salaries) are.
However, as a testament to the attraction, resilience and value of the liberal arts, this top half of this ranking is full of schools that develop the "philosopher's touch." Amherst College (No. 16), Wellesley College (No. 25) and Williams College (No. 26) are the highest ranking liberal arts gems, followed by Pomona College (No. 27), Haverford College (No. 29) and Claremont-McKenna College (No. 32). Even among research universities, not everyone is in the lab or coding: Rice University (No. 14) is known for both its engineering and top-notch arts and humanities programs while at the College of William and Mary (No.35), 30% of the most popular programs are in the social sciences and literature.
READ MORE: 10 Expensive Colleges Worth Every Penny 2017
Top 25 By The Numbers:
16 are private institutions / 9 are public
23 are research institutions / 2 are liberal arts colleges
10 are located on East Coast / 9 West Coast / 6 South
91% on-time graduation rate
$13,380 median student debt
$66,400 median post-graduate earnings
$11,990 median tuition for public schools
$40,340 median tuition for private schools
Methodology of Best Value Colleges
For this second annual Best Value Colleges ranking, our sights are set directly on one question: What schools are worth the investment? We made a few changes to this year’s methodology, and this list reflects a modest departure from 2016. The formula's six categories and weights are noted below:
Quality (25%) + alumni earnings (20%) + median student debt (20%) + on-time graduation (15%) + drop-out risk (10%) + Pell Grant recipients (10%) / gross tuition and fees **
Quality (25%): This is based on the 2016 FORBES Top Colleges ranking. Full methodology is here.
Alumni earnings (20%): We use our own blended model of mid-career earnings (meaning at least 10 years of working), based both on PayScale and the U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard. Each has its benefits and its drawbacks. PayScale is the market leader in global online compensation data but that data is wholly self-reported. The College Scorecard is based on federal income tax returns. Factual-as-it-gets, yes, but these numbers are also imperfect. They do not include former students who did not receive federal financial aid. We feel a blended approach is the most accurate snapshot currently available.
Student debt (20%): This is new to this year’s ranking. Knowing that students are more burdened with student debt than ever -- to the tune of nearly $1.4 trillion cumulatively and some $37,000 for 2016 grads with loans -- we decided it was important to examine student debt levels as reported by College Scorecard data. The negative impact for student loan borrowers extends from couch-surfing and cutting back on healthcare to deferring saving for retirement and delaying marriage and children.
On-time Graduation success (15%): We look to Scorecard data for the average expected number of years it takes to graduate -- of those who do graduate within six years. For example, a stellar school might have an average of 91% 4-year graduation rate (Georgetown University) while its not-so-successful counterpart may be looking at a 59% 4-year average rate (Rutgers University).
Drop-out risk (10%): This is based not on retention rates but rather the percentage of students who do not graduate in six years. For example, if 80% of students earn their diploma within six years time, our factor is that 20% remaining. This is reported by DOE’s Scorecard.
Pell Grant recipients (10%): This is also new to this ranking. We added this Scorecard data to note colleges' enrollment figures in this federal financial aid program for students who generally represent the bottom 40% of the nation's income distribution. In 2016, there were 2.6 million Pell Grant recipients. We acknowledge that many of the elite schools, which typically land at the top of college rankings, enroll mostly upper class students, and that there is comprehensive value to a college’s commitment to economic diversity.
Tuition and fees: Pulled from the College Scorecard, this is the price without accounting for room and board. The reason is that while many full-time students live in on-campus facilities (some 64% at private schools and 40% at public colleges, according the College Board), others commute from their family or private residences, with varying price tags. We focus only on the cost of actual credit accumulation. For public schools, we account for differences between in- and out-state tuition based on percentage of in- and out-state students. For example, if one state college has 5% out-state students while another has 27%, this would impact our tally of these schools' tuition.
Note: Absent from this ranking are the five U.S. service academies: the Military Academy in West Point, Naval Academy, Coast Guard Academy, Merchant Marine Academy and Air Force Academy. These federal institutions charge little to no tuition or fees and instead require a minimum term of duty upon graduation.
** Special thanks to Dmitri Slavinksy, manager of software development, Product Development, for data analysis.
READ MORE: Best College By Region: Northeast, West, Midwest And South
