Dive Brief:
- Money’s second annual value ranking of schools found Stanford, Babson College, MIT, Princeton, and CalTech as the top five schools in the country, based on educational quality, affordability, and graduate earnings.
- Harvey Mudd College, which has consistently topped Payscale.com’s rankings of the best-value colleges, ties for the number six spot with Harvard.
- The magazine's methodology includes value-added calculations comparing expected and actual outcomes for graduation rates, student loan default rates, and earnings data.
Dive Insight:
U.S. News & World Report rankings have been repeatedly criticized for valuing what some see as the wrong metrics. They have been accused of shifting the entire culture of higher education, prompting boards of trustees to set dubious priorities, allocating money toward initiatives that will help a school in the rankings but not help it serve students better. U.S. News gives the most weight to student retention rates and academic reputation as reported by peers and high school counselors. Both rankings systems take into account quality of education and affordability, but Money adds in an entire category for earnings outcomes.
Just as U.S. News & World Report rankings have pushed schools to court students with high SAT scores and those most likely to matriculate, some worry that rankings like those provided by Money will incentivize college career services advisors to push students solely toward high-paying careers that will help the school’s image. Payscale.com has an entire ranking system focused solely on graduate earnings.
Rankings foes, however, can take heart that at least the Obama administration has backed away from its ratings plan.