One of the best ways
to evaluate a school is to do some real digging, or better yet, hire me to do
it for you! I am not talking about US News or Forbes rankings, which are
actually quite useless, as more schools come forward and admit they fudged the
numbers to boost their rankings (see: Bucknell, Claremont-McKenna, Baylor, and Villanova,
to name a few) and market themselves like fast food joints. I am talking about looking at original data like the Common Data Set, 6-year graduation rates, Federal
student loan default rates and the like. This information can tell you a lot
more about the school you or your kid fell in love with than a tour, an info
session or an overnight with the lax bros. If a Federal student loan default
rate is over 2%, we can extrapolate that that school has too many kids who don't
finish, but still have to service their debt- no loan forgiveness if they fail
out, leave because they can't borrow any more to finish, or can't find any sort
of job- or were urged to seek alternative (non-government, market rate) loans and carry so
much debt that they can't possibly service it all! The higher the default rate,
the more concern you should have about how this school is helping students pay
for college or helping them through a tough time. This statistic is important even for students who don’t receive a
dime of aid from the school. It speaks volumes about the controls in place for
keeping students in school.
Another key statistic is the graduation rate. Schools report this for 4, 5 and 6 years, meaning how many graduate on time in four years, how many in five and how many in six. This number matters because a school that graduates less than 80% of its students in 6 years, to me, is a school that isn’t invested in helping kids get through. For private schools, this may mean an extra year of tuition in a worst-case scenario; at $50k a year, that could make anyone nauseated!
US News, the College Board and Peterson’s, as well as data providers in the higher education community, produce Common Data Sets through a coordinated effort to achieve consistency in critical information about a given school. They provide statistical data that is calculated the same way by all participating schools (the only two I have found that don’t participate in making their CDS data publicly available at this time are High Point U and Wash U. in St. Louis). It can tell you the academic profile of the last freshman class (class rank, median test scores, breakdown by race) the student/faculty ratio, if they award merit money and other juicy stuff like how many are waitlisted and how many actually get in from that waitlist each year. The data is arranged the same way for all schools so it’s easy to find in each report.
Freshman retention rates, how much demonstrated need is met, how many students receive Pell grants and more can be found with just a little digging. While it’s great to drool over a glossy marketing piece your kid got in the mail, be sure to look more closely at the numbers. They may tell a very different story and its a story you need to know before you write a tuition check or take out a PLUS loan.
Confused? Want a handy spreadsheet with this key data for all those dream schools to help with decision-making and to provide a reality check after being seduced by those beautiful pictures of great looking kids strolling across the campus green? Get in touch and I will whip one up for you ASAP. Email me at Athenaadvisors@optimum.net
Another key statistic is the graduation rate. Schools report this for 4, 5 and 6 years, meaning how many graduate on time in four years, how many in five and how many in six. This number matters because a school that graduates less than 80% of its students in 6 years, to me, is a school that isn’t invested in helping kids get through. For private schools, this may mean an extra year of tuition in a worst-case scenario; at $50k a year, that could make anyone nauseated!
US News, the College Board and Peterson’s, as well as data providers in the higher education community, produce Common Data Sets through a coordinated effort to achieve consistency in critical information about a given school. They provide statistical data that is calculated the same way by all participating schools (the only two I have found that don’t participate in making their CDS data publicly available at this time are High Point U and Wash U. in St. Louis). It can tell you the academic profile of the last freshman class (class rank, median test scores, breakdown by race) the student/faculty ratio, if they award merit money and other juicy stuff like how many are waitlisted and how many actually get in from that waitlist each year. The data is arranged the same way for all schools so it’s easy to find in each report.
Freshman retention rates, how much demonstrated need is met, how many students receive Pell grants and more can be found with just a little digging. While it’s great to drool over a glossy marketing piece your kid got in the mail, be sure to look more closely at the numbers. They may tell a very different story and its a story you need to know before you write a tuition check or take out a PLUS loan.
Confused? Want a handy spreadsheet with this key data for all those dream schools to help with decision-making and to provide a reality check after being seduced by those beautiful pictures of great looking kids strolling across the campus green? Get in touch and I will whip one up for you ASAP. Email me at Athenaadvisors@optimum.net
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