During last fall’s college rankings frenzy, I missed the Economist’s first ever contribution to the college rankings. Having taken some time to look over the list and methodology, I think they have something meaningful to contribute to comparing colleges. Like Money Magazine’s Rankings, the Economist is looking at the financial results of a college education. Unlike Money which focuses on the Return On Investment, the Economist’s college rankings are focused on the school effect.
Michelle Kretzschmar
Are College Baseball Players Happy?
(The data is from 2010 but I think is still valuable today.)
Do you know what you’re in for if you end up playing college baseball? Sure, you’ve talked to the coach multiple times and have done your overnight with the player. And you probably know about being able to do three things in college, study, play ball, and party but athletes only get to pick two. But do you really think you know what it’s going to be like?
What’s Important to College Baseball Coaches
So why is a college baseball coach more likely to lose interest in a high school prospect, showing poor attitude at a game where the coach is watching or a poor high school season? If you said poor high school season, you’re wrong. Which would have a greater negative effect on the recruiting coach, seeing a game where the player had a poor performance or low grades? Obviously poor performance, right? Wrong. It’s low grades.
50-50 Highlights: Doctoral/Research Universities Ranked by Students’ Salaries
This fall’s college rankings have made earnings and return on investment a more prominent consideration when selecting a college. And with the ever increasing cost of college, this is a very reasonable reaction. However, ranking colleges by some form of graduates’ salaries has its own set of problems. Teachers simply don’t make as much as engineers or investment bankers but we need teachers. Incomes are higher in areas with higher costs of living. And these are just some of the obvious issues of ranking universities by graduates’ salaries. But this shouldn’t stop you from using the available information–just understand its limitations.
What You Need to Know About the DIY College Rankings College Profile
In each of my newsletters, I include a brief profile of a 50-50 college. For those new to my website, a 50-50 school is a college that accepts at least 49% of students and has at least a 49% graduation rate. I use the four-year rate for private schools and the five-year rate for public. You can download a complete list here.
I have also created profiles for over 350 of them so far and am gradually getting them all listed. You can find individual profiles here. With all of the college search websites available, it wouldn’t be unreasonable for you to wonder why I bother, or more importantly, why you should bother to look at them.
How to Pay Less for College: Avoid Goldilocks Colleges
I started off this series of How to Pay Less for College by discussing how the economics of supply and demand are the basis for cutting the cost of college. The next two posts on college rankings and geography were basically explaining two significant elements that affect how much families will pay for college. Today I want to talk about a third factor that falls under the supply and demand of college admissions: college size.
How to Pay Less for College: Geography Matters
As someone who recently bought a house in an economically booming market, I can tell you the same house costs a lot more near the city center than out in the suburbs. My husband and I looked at the trade-offs in terms of travel time and cost and for us, the suburbs made sense. We don’t live in Austin, we are actually in the extraterritorial jurisdiction of the city of Hutto. And despite the Hippo fetish, we’re good with that.
How does this have anything to do with how to pay less for college? Because how much you pay for college can depend on location.
How to Pay Less for College: The Value of Rankings
In my last post, I talked about how even colleges are subjected to the laws of supply and demand. The more students want to attend a college, the more the college can charge. If you want to pay less for college, you need to consider colleges with higher acceptance rates. Now I want to look at why so many students are interested in the same college. What makes 50 or fewer colleges so much more attractive than the remaining 1,500? Can you say “college rankings?”
5 Most Popular Free Downloads to Help You Find a College
I know that not everyone is able to keep up with all of the information I post to the website. For the past six months or so I’ve been creating PDFs for some of the posts, usually those with lists of colleges but not always. In case you’ve missed them, I’m listing the five most popular posts based on their PDF downloads. And no, there isn’t any fee for downloading.