Holding true to the Higher Education Opportunity Act legislation, the Department of Education has started it’s own ranking system for colleges and universities. It is called the College Affordability and Transparency List (or CATL for short).

The government has always asked colleges and universities to report statistical data (including costs) every year through the IPEDS survey (Integrated Post-secondary Education Data System) but this is the first year that the financial data will be made widely available for families to sort through, compare, and contrast based upon specific criteria.

The purpose of this list is aimed at highlighting the schools that have the highest prices AND the highest rate of price increases. Schools at the top of this list for the three year period preceding the release of this list will be required to submit additional reports to the Secretary of Education. From what I understand, over 500 colleges will be required to execute the additional reporting piece this year.

The statistics of the data being presented are a little shocking (maybe even mind-numbing) but numbers don’t lie and usually speak for themselves.  Should you use this data to help you in your college search process? Maybe, but I would probably advise against it. These numbers are already a couple years old and since they provide a statistical average, your individual financial outlook at one of these colleges may actually be better or worse than the average.

Below are a few different categories that I pulled from the CATL report. If you would like to play around with the data and run your own reports or check out your favorite college or university to see where it stands amongst the others, click here to give it a whirl.

4-year Private Schools With The Highest Percentage Increase In Tuition From 2008-2010

Institution

State

2007-08

2009-10

% Increase

4-year Public Schools With The Highest Percentage Increase In Tuition From 2008-2010

Institution

State

2007-08

2009-10

% Increase

4-year Private Schools With The Highest Net Tuition Price (after financial aid)

Institution

State

Net Price(1)

4-year Public Schools With The Highest Net Tuition Price (after financial aid)

Institution

State

Net Price(1)(2)

4-year Private Schools With The Lowest Net Tuition Price (after financial aid)

Institution

State

Net Price(1)

4-year Public Schools With The Lowest Net Tuition Price (after financial aid)

Institution

State

Net Price(1)(2)

The Princeton review recently released a report reflecting 100 of the Best Value Colleges for 2011. The list represents the top 50 Public and top 50 Private colleges in the nation that are recognized for their value. You have to keep in mind that this (value) doesn’t necessarily mean that they are cheaper. It does, however, reflect that these schools are implementing strategies to keep tuition costs at a minimum and student loan debt as low as possible.

Strategies to accomplish this include:

• Keeping sticker price at or below the rate provided by comparable schools
• Awarding generous amounts of financial aid (institutional, federal, & state)
• Maintaining low-to-no student loan debt percentages for graduated students

Below are the top ten public and private schools included in this Princeton Review ranking:

Public
1. University of Virginia, Charlottesville
2. New College of Florida, Sarasota
3. University of Florida, Gainesville
4. State University of New York, Binghamton
5. University of Georgia, Athens
6. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
7. College of William and Mary
8. University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
9. North Carolina State University
10. Hunter College, CUNY

Private
1. Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, Pa.
2. Duke University, Durham, N.C.
3. Princeton University, Princeton, N.J.
4. California Institute of Technology, Pasadena
5. Harvard College, Cambridge, Mass.
6. Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT
7. Williams College, Williamstown, MA
8. Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN
9. Wesleyan College, Macon, GA
10. Yale University, New Haven, CT

Going to college can be challenging but having a physical disability and going to college can be an entirely different experience all together. Fortunately, I have had the opportunity to witness a number of college campuses across the nation equip themselves to be “disability friendly” over the years in hopes of increasing the accessibility of their programs to ALL students. The following is a scholarship program for the legally blind and the results of a recent study utilized to rank college websites and their ability to meet the needs of blind students. Hope you find this information helpful.

Scholarship Opportunity For The Blind

The National Federation of the Blind (NFB) is starting to accept applications for the 2011 scholarship season. The value of this scholarship could be from $3,000 to $12,000. In addition to the scholarship, each recipient will receive assistance to attend the annual NFB convention held in July.

Here are the Eligibility Requirements:

1. must be legally blind (PDF document) in both eyes (the government defines blindness as having a central visual acuity of 20/200 or less after using corrective lenses or having a visual field with 20 degees of vision or less, counting both eyes together.), and
2. must be residing in the United States, the District of Columbia, or Puerto Rico, and
3. must be pursuing or planning to pursue a full-time, postsecondary course of study in a degree program at a United States institution in the 2011 scholastic year, except that one scholarship may be given to a person employed full-time while attending school part-time, and
4. must participate in the entire NFB national convention and in all scheduled scholarship program activities.

Applicants have until March 31st to submit all necessary applications and documentation. The following links provide narratives from past scholarship winners that could be helpful in securing your spot as a scholarship recipient this year:

• Braille Monitor August-September 2010
• Braille Monitor August-September 2009
• Braille Monitor August-September 2008

If you would like more information about this scholarship opportunity, you can contact Chairperson Patti Chang via email at scholarships@nfb.org or call (410) 659-9314 ext. 2415. You can also find answers to frequently asked questions here.

Blind Friendly Colleges (from a website perspective)

The federal government has already mandated (ADA 1990) that every college in the nation receiving Title IV funding (Federal Financial Aid) make deliberate attempts at being as accommodating as possible when it comes to legally blind students. Most colleges have met or exceeded expectations in this area but my guess is that there is still probably room for improvement on some campuses.

Jon Gunderson is employed as a coordinator of assisted communication and technology at the University of Illinois and he recently completed a research project to identify the best and worst college websites for blind students. His study examined over 183 institutions (and their accompanying websites) and utilized the following criteria to provide an overall ranking score.

1. The Web site must have text where a browser’s text reader will pick it up. The same must be true for all Web pages on the site.
2. All additional headings on a page must contain text, and font sizes need to be ordered largest to smallest, consecutively.
3. All elements of online applications need to be properly labeled so that text readers will find them. Such elements include: password boxes, radio buttons, file buttons, check boxes, “select” buttons, “submit” buttons, and “reset” buttons.
4. If you use a table to display information, include proper tags in the cells: “th” tags to indicate categories and “td” tags to indicate data.
5. If there is a picture included anywhere on the Web site, there should be text, coded for text readers, describing the picture.
6. Tables should be used only for organizing data in rows and columns. If you are designing a Web site, use a cascading style sheet instead of a table.

Based upon this research, the following is a ranking of the top ten schools and their “Blind Friendly Score”. My hunch would be that the schools at the top of this website ranking would also be a great match for a legally blind student. However, an excellent online environment doesn’t necessarily dictate a blind friendly campus environment – so take these ranking with a grain of salt.

School – Rank – BF Score

I don’t know about you but I really enjoy checking out statistics on a number of topics but I tend to gravitate toward higher education facts and figures just because it is an area in which I can relate on multiple levels.

I recently came across a compilation of college statistics that were put together by OnlineSchools.org and I thought it would be worth sharing with you. Some of the stats are humbling but others are pleasantly enlightening. Staying on topic with CheapScholar.org’s mission, check out the facts and figures below related to college costs.

If you are a student that is in the middle of the college search process or you are a college administrator, college rankings play a BIG role in your life. Students rely upon these rankings to help them find the right school for their educational needs and college administrators either cower in fear or jump for joy depending on the results of the various rankings.

Given the widespread impact of these rankings…I really want to know… who is the watchdog for all of these college ranking entities? Who makes them accountable for the final results? Do they really know what they are doing?

I know that all the data and methods utilized to gather and sculpt the information are generally available for public review but at the end of the day it appears that most people really just take the rankings for face value and trust that someone applied the appropriate variables to the final calculations that ranked one institution higher (or lower) than another. This public trust of our college ranking systems put a lot of power at the hands of those doing the rankings. So… since the college rankings play such a big role in our lives, I think it is extremely reasonable for us to apply a similar ranking formula to the “College Rankers” and see how they fair.

I have devised the following formula as a starting point for our “ranking of the rankers”. As you can imagine, I can make it as complicated as humanly possible but I like to keep things simple. Besides, it allows a lot of room for subjective tweaking by me (which we know NEVER happens in college rankings). Each category/variable of the equation below can receive a score of 1 to 5 and I will try my best to work with round numbers but given the mathematical complexity of my equation, I can’t guarantee that some long stranded decimal point action won’t present itself. If my calculations are accurate, the highest score that can be achieved is 50 and the lowest is .40 (but that low number would take some real effort to reach).

Simple Equation for Ranking the College Rankers

Accuracy (plus) Legitimacy (divided by) Lack of Quantitative Intelligence (times) Method of Delivery (equals) Overall Ranking

-or-

(A+L) x MOD = OR
LQI

Now that we have an equation in place for our rankers. Let’s go ahead and start the Ranking of the Rankers… or ROTR for short…

U.S. News and World Report

U.S. News and World Report is to college rankings as Tiffany’s is to jewelry. If U.S. News and World Report were around when the first three colleges were formed, my guess is that they would have established the first college ranking system without haste. (By the way – if you are curious about which three were first, it all started with New College (known know as Harvard) in 1636, College of William and Mary in 1693, and Collegiate School (Yale) in 1701). U.S. News is probably the best known of all the college rankers. Every year people are chomping at the bit to see the release of their college ranking results. I would liken the interest to that of Groundhog’s day when everyone patiently awaits to see if Punxsutawny Phil catches a glimpse of his shadow. The only difference is that everyone leaves Groundhog’s day resolved on the prospect of snow for the coming weeks and it seems like absolutely no one is resolved after the release of the rankings by U.S. News. I wonder how the ROTR Report will treat them?

Accuracy: I am going to give U.S. News a 5 in this category. Over the years they have established a comprehensive systematic approach to how they gather data and the accuracy of this information doesn’t seem to draw too many questions

Legitimacy: They will get a 3 in this category. The resources that they utilize to gather their information are fairly reliable (at least the institutional figures). However, some of the rankings do take into account the opinions of high school counselors and academic peers (college presidents, provosts, and deans). The results on these surveys can definitely be skewed depending on a person’s knowledge (extensive or lack there of) and views of various schools. So that is why I ranked a 3 on this variable.

Quantitative Intelligence (Lack There Of): U.S. News has repeatedly tweaked the manner in which they calculate their numbers. A lot of time and effort seems to be emphasized in this area (since it garners the most attention?). Even so, I think they still have room to grow in this area so I am going to give them a ranking of 2 (remember a low number on this variable is better than a higher one because a larger number indicates that you excel in having a lack of quantitative intelligence)

Method of Delivery: U.S. News promotes their rankings in just about every media method available to mankind. They dominate the internet, the news stands, and also the reference section of bookstores with their statistical rankings. Therefore, I give them a 5 in this category.

The End Result: Using the ROTR calculation above, I see that U.S. News and World Report scores a 20 on the ROTR Report. Not too shabby all things considered.

Forbes

When Forbes started doing college rankings, I had high hopes of the role they would play in the ranking system. If anyone was going to dissect and calculate the financial aspect and viability of colleges, you couldn’t get any better than Forbes… right?  I mean.. seriously.. it is FORBES.  Unfortunately, the financial wizards at Forbes let me down. I guess I must have had my expectations set too high. When they showed up to the college ranking dance floor, it looks like they left their “A game” at home and were prepared to make a mediocre appearance. Shame shame on Forbes… Let’s see how they fair on the ROTR Report.

Accuracy: Forbes is getting a 3 in this category. I would like to give them lower but they do a decent job of gathering the data from their various sources and compiling the data for their rankings.

Legitimacy: Going with a 1 on this category. Any ranking entity that utilizes RateMyProfessor.com as a resource for the data they are calculating, should get a zero but since zero is not an option in the ROTR Report, I am giving Forbes a 1. For those that don’t know, RateMyProfessor is open to the public and anyone can rate a professor regardless of whether they even had them for a class. Many times, professors even vote for themselves! I am also giving Forbes a 1 because they introduced this ill-conceived and unfounded ranking (be sure to check out the comments on this one).  Lastly, they also use the Who’s Who in America series to measure post-graduate success. I really don’t see a connection there so I feel the legitimacy of the Forbes data and ranking system is sub par.

Quantitative Intelligence (Lack There Of): You would think that a bunch of financial wizards from Forbes Magazine would do a great job at crunching the numbers to come up with the most equitable results. However, their method is greatly flawed in that it doesn’t distinguish between school types so small private liberal arts colleges, large military academies, and research universities all get thrown into the same mix. I going to give Forbes a 5 on their lack of quantitative intelligence.

Method of Delivery: Forbes maximizes most media outlets to get their ranking out amongst the people. They have a great web tool that makes sorting out specific results a cinch. They provide appropriate coverage in their magazine but it appears they have not gone the route of book publication just yet. I give Forbes a 3 in this category.

The End Result: Using the ROTR calculation (above), Forbes comes out of the gate with a 2.4. This certainly leaves them room for improvement. Maybe they can adjust their ranking operations to perform better next year on the ROTR Report.

The Princeton Review

You know… with a name like Princeton it just has to be good …right? The Princeton Review has certainly been around for a number of years and personally I would probably rank them right up there with U.S. News and World Report in regard to viability and usability by prospective students and families. However, at the end of the day, the ROTR Report decides all, so lets see how they compare.

Accuracy: Princeton Review (PR) used to collect all of their data by canvasing the nation and surveying students on each of the college campuses utilizing a paper form. However, in recent years they now offer an electronic survey that students can complete online 24 hours a day , 7 days a week.  The information gathered in this survey is compiled in an efficient and effective manner that allows very little room for inaccuracy. Based upon this, I am giving them a 5 in this category.

Legitimacy: The unfortunate aspect of the Princeton Reviews data gathering process is that it is all based upon the opinion of students. However, since their rankings seem to be more personal in nature (the warm fuzzies of campus), the legitimacy of this data and how it impacts their ranking system is rather fitting. So, I give them a 4 in this category.

Quantitative Intelligence (Lack There Of): Princeton Review does a great job of simplifying how they calculate the data received. All the information they gather is warehoused in a database and each school is scored in a manner that is similar to how a student is graded in college (like a GPA). These scores alone decide which colleges make the 62 ranking lists. Nothing more.. nothing less.  Based upon this simplistic approach, I am giving Princeton Review a 1 in this category (meaning, they have a high aptitude when it comes to quantitative intelligence).

Method of Delivery: Princeton Review has a fairly basic delivery method on their website. In addition, they also publish books each year with their findings.  However, the greatest tool that they use to get the word out is their partnership with USA Today. Using the readership base of USA Today(online and paper subscriptions), they are able get their ranking results out among the masses. I give Princeton Review a 5 in this category.

The End Result: Dropping the figures above into the ROTR calculation, I show that Princeton Review scores a 45. Surprisingly, this allows them to blow past the competition and secure the ranking of 1st place in the 2010 ROTR Report (Ranking of the Rankers).

In Summary

College rankings serve as a great reference tool for students that are in the midst of the college search process. However, don’t let these rankings be the end all be all deciding factor in the college that you ultimately choose to hang your hat for four years.  Take the time to visit each of the colleges you are interested in and ask the questions that are near and dear to what YOU are looking for in a college environment (academically, socially, politically, etc…). Then, and only then, can you make a decision about the best college for you. Don’t let these guys above (Forbes, U.S.News, and Princeton Review) make that choice for you. At the end of the day it is a personal choice and you will feel accomplished that you made it on your own.

We all know that the cost of education is rising greater than that of inflation. As a person who has young children, it is hard for me to comprehend the fact that tuition, room, and board costs could be approaching $100,000 a year by the time my eldest (currently age 3) makes that monumental journey off to college.

I came across a chart supplied by College Board that represents the 58 private colleges in the nation that currently have tuition, room, and board charges totaling greater than $50k. A surprising tidbit of knowledge is that only 5 institutions were on this list last year. Anyone want to make a guess of how many will be above the fifty thousand mark next academic year?

When you look at this chart and you see the costs of these colleges and universities, you need to keep in mind that these are the “sticker prices”. These prices do not reflect the amount of financial aid offered by these schools to help make their institutions financially accessible to all students/families. Don’t get me wrong, it is still a lot of money and many families do pay the full “sticker price” but that is probably not the norm at any of the colleges on this list.

Here is the list in order from highest to lowest (cost):