The College Rankings: Measuring Outcomes, Not Inputs: A look at what goes into the new rankings, what doesn't -- and why.

 

"Going to college is one of the biggest investments most students will ever make, and choosing a college is one of life's biggest decisions -- that's why so many applicants and their families need a trusted guide.

The Wall Street Journal has published a U.S. college ranking since 2016 and, working with our research partners College Pulse and Statista, this year's edition makes some important improvements to our methodology.

We no longer reward colleges' wealth or reputation in and of themselves. Gone is the survey of academics on schools' reputations. Gone are the rewards for instructional spending and the assumption that the quality of education is largely dictated by how expensive it is to produce.

In their place we've expanded the importance of student outcomes: graduation rates and graduate salaries.

Critically, we now put greater emphasis on measuring the value added by colleges -- not simply measuring their students' success, but focusing on the contribution the college makes to that success.

Some colleges doing great things for students who would otherwise struggle have previously received relatively low marks in our rankings. By contrast, some colleges doing less for students who would do well regardless of where they went to school have previously been lauded.

Our new ranking rebalances this.

To calculate the value added by colleges, we estimate how well their students would do regardless of which college they attended, taking into account the factors that best predict student outcomes.

The colleges are rewarded for their students' success over and above that estimate.

These scores are combined with raw graduation rates and graduate salaries. In other words, success in absolute terms is still taken into account, but with the value added given greater emphasis than previously.

The idea is that a college whose graduates earn a median salary of $60,000 10 years after enrollment and would have earned a median $50,000 if they had gone to a different college is, at least for that metric, more impressive than one whose graduates earn a median salary of $80,000 but would have earned a median $90,000 had they gone elsewhere. Median salaries, or course, are just that: They are the middle of a range of salaries earned by graduates who take any number of paths after college.

For students, we believe this ranking will help them identify which schools will do the most to help them graduate and make more money.

College scores in our ranking are based on three factors: student outcomes, accounting for 70% of the ranking; the learning environment at 20%; and diversity, at 10%.

The ranking is constructed by applying rigorous statistical analysis to official government data, combined with responses from one of the largest independent surveys of verified students ever conducted in the U.S.

In addition to the analysis of graduation rates and graduate salaries outlined above, we factor in the cost of attendance against salary performance when considering student outcomes.

To do that we start with average net price: the average annual overall cost of attending the college for students who receive federal financial aid, including tuition and fees, room and board, and books and supplies, taking into account any grants and scholarships. We base the total for four years on the student's cost for freshman year. Costs often rise through a student's college career, but our four-year estimate gives us a figure we can use to compare schools based on the current first-year cost.

We divide the estimated total net price for four years of attendance at a college by the median salary of its graduates over and above that of high-school graduates in the state where the college is located. We end up with an estimate of how quickly the salary boost attributable to college attendance pays for the cost of college.

As an example, consider our top performer on this metric, Baruch College, where the estimated average net price across four years is $7,744.

The additional median annual salary its graduates enjoy over and above that of high-school graduates in New York state is $45,078 -- so an education at Baruch pays for itself in just two months by this measure.

To analyze the learning environment in each college, we asked its students and recent graduates about it, rather than rely on the school's reputation or wealth. We commissioned one of the largest-ever independent surveys of verified college students and recent alumni in the U.S., undertaken by College Pulse, to gather their views on the quality and frequency of learning opportunities and career preparation at their school, their satisfaction with its learning facilities, and an overall recommendation score.

Finally, we include a measure for diversity, combining metrics about the racial, ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds and disability status of students and faculty with the experiences of students on campus via the survey. We think exposure to people from diverse backgrounds is a positive for students in itself.

Some final notes on our new methodology:

Instead of debt after graduation, we now use net price to better reflect the full financial burden on students who receive federal financial aid and their families -- including any loans they may need. A singular focus on debt would punish colleges for enrolling students with lower family incomes, who are more likely to require loans to cover college costs.

We don't factor in selectivity, which we consider to be an input, rather than an outcome for which the college should be rewarded. And we don't rely on self-reported data submitted to us by schools.

None of this is to say that making money is the most important outcome for students.

Every student is different, and their goals for what they want out of college are different. To that end, our rankings offer a few other measures by which you can evaluate schools.

If you want to know the best colleges to have a great experience while you're there, for instance, we've separated out a Student Experience ranking just for that.

We also want to showcase the colleges doing the most for those with the least. For that, we offer a Social Mobility ranking -- the colleges doing best on salaries and graduation rates while taking in the highest proportion of low-income students.

And for those who really do care entirely about incomes, we have a ranking based purely on Salary Impact.

What constitutes a good college is almost inevitably subjective and a source of contention.

But if you want to prioritize learning environment and career preparation, and choose the college that will do the most to make sure you graduate and maximize your earnings, that's the focus of this ranking. We hope that this will be a vital resource -- and will help you trust your decisions when considering one of the biggest and most exciting choices of your life.

Full details of our methodology are available online with our rankings, at wsj.com/collegerankings." [1]

1. College Rankings (A Special Report) --- The College Rankings: Measuring Outcomes, Not Inputs: A look at what goes into the new rankings, what doesn't -- and why. Carr, Harry. 
Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 07 Sep 2023: R.2.