The two will host a town hall meeting on college affordability and access.
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This year, the administration dropped that idea after college leaders and others complained that it would be unfair for the government to pick winners and losers based on sometimes-flawed data. “Taxpayers shouldn’t be subsidizing students to go to schools where the kids aren’t graduating”.
“Think of these top colleges as high-end luxury cars”, writes New America Foundation Senior Policy Analyst Ben Miller in a debate piece on university rankings (sponsored, interestingly enough, by U.S. News themselves).
Understanding the economics of a college degree lies somewhere between “huh?” and “GTFO” for many high-school students and their parents. It does not count earnings of students who did not receive federal aid.
What sets it apart from other college lists is that it includes how much graduates earn after attending the school as well as the average monthly loan payment for those who borrowed to pay for their education. They can follow up with the college to learn what resources it allocates to a particular field. White House officials said three such sites – ScholarMatch, StartClass and College Abacus – have begun using the data to enhance the information they provide. Among them is Carleton College, a highly regarded liberal arts school. Depending on an analysis of the measurement by school, the Georgia Institute of Technology ranks first, at least for those who have the background to attend, and want high salaries once they graduate. The median annual wage in cosmetology is under $25,000 per year. Please share your views in the comments section about the new College Scorecard revamp heavy on outcomes.
That’s why the President is committed to making sure there exists reliable information that helps students find the college that best fits their needs so that they can succeed. At Carleton, that repayment rate is 96 percent, above the national average of 67 percent.
Even so, higher-education professionals still have mixed feelings about the scorecard.
But President Obama and his administration have something else in mind for highlighting how academic institutions should be measured – a new “college scorecard” initiative, which the president announced today (Sept. 12). “However, developing a system of this size and scope is a complicated and nuanced endeavor and the department has done so without any external review”.
The scorecard unveiled on Saturday instead is a searchable database that provides information on factors that might help prospective students decide where to apply and enrol. The second school on the list is University of California-Berkeley at $62,700. Harvard was the best bargain, at an average net price of $3,386 and median earnings of $87,200 for alumni 10 years out of college. The Education Department and Treasury Department combined forces to link a huge database of all students who got Pell Grants or student loans since 1996 with their income tax records, producing the clearest picture ever of how students who received federal financial aid fared in college and after.
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The White House says that information is too hard to find.
