Also, as far as commuting students, if you have the opportunity to reduce your debt by $50,000 by commuting from home that is good decision. You’re right, it reduces the fun factor but paying that debt afterwords is not fun.
It is my hope that UTD becomes a Top 100 school. I think they can get there with continued investments/partnerships from some of the biggest corporations in the world, located here. Let’s hope they get there soon. It would be good for Texas and great for the DFW area.
I agree.
I think there are nearly 7,000 students living on campus at UTD now without being required to live on campus. And roughly 6300 students live on campus at SFA - with the requirement that all non-local, non-married freshmen and sophomores live on campus. Now yes- there is a way higher percentage of the student population living on campus at SFA - but it is a lesser number of bodies.
Having kids at a high school with nearly 4,000 students - there is a realization that you can only know so many people. I think 6,000 or 7,000 students living on campus is a good number to create a community feel on campus.
And I do too hope that UTD cracks the top 100 @TXDad56 - The fact it is now tied on US News and World Report at 129 with Bama, University of Kansas, Missou, University of Illinois - Chicago, and Nebraska - Lincoln is a huge step in the right direction.
Our DS will be an incoming freshman at UTD in the fall. He’s a National Merit Finalist entering the honors program in computer engineering/robotics. We attended preview days with kids and parents from all over the country. They seemed to have the same reaction we did. We were all blown away – not just by the unbelievable investment the university is making in these kids (which is tremendous), but by the ambitious spirit and high standards we encountered everywhere we went. There is a sense that this is a university on the move – that if our son can dream it, they will help him get there. We love that.
Agree with @BlueBayouAZ that is a great group of colleges to be associated with. I feel like I am better informed about UTD than the average person, but even still I am surprised by that company. Each one of them underrated at 129 IMO.
BIG NEWS! - UTD just moved up 30 spots on the Forbes Best Value list. UTD is now 15th in the nation for public schools and 31st for all schools!! The only school in Texas above UTD is Rice. Wow! https://www.forbes.com/best-value-colleges/#1974e174245b
Brigham Young University is #1 and University of Michigan #60, better take this list with salt n pepper.
It is actually based on things that I think are important:
We compiled our fourth annual ranking of the 300 Best Value Colleges by amassing and comparing data on 645 colleges and universities across all 50 states. We score them in the following six areas: quality; net price; net debt; alumni earnings; timely graduation; and access for low-income students. Our list evaluates both public and private institutions offering four-year degrees and does not include private for-profit schools.
Our focus highlights schools with the highest quality and best financial outcomes. When it comes to judging quality, we rely on our most recent America’s Top Colleges ranking. For financials, we turn to information provided by the federal postsecondary database system known as IPEDS. We judge each school’s net price, or sticker price for tuition, fees and room and board minus the grants, scholarships, and education tax benefits that students receive. For state schools, we use in-state tuition. We also consider average federal debt load per student, timely (within six years) graduation rate and midcareer alumni earnings (sourced from the DOE’s College Scorecard and PayScale). Finally, the presence of Pell Grant students is considered a plus, as it tends to mean schools that are focused on creating opportunities for low-income students. We scored the percentage of each school’s student body receiving Pell Grants.
The five highly selective U.S. Service Academies, Military, Naval, Air Force, Coast Guard and Merchant Marine were not included in this ranking.
: Brigham Young University is #1 and University of
: Michigan #60, better take this list with salt n pepper.
It’s a value list. BYU’s total cost of attendance is under $19k/year for LDS students and under $25k/year for non-LDS students. Even in-state, I would be surprised if any school in USN&WR top 100 can match that LDS number. (BYU is no. 66.) I wouldn’t send my kids there, but it makes perfect sense for it to be at the top of a list like this.
Michigan is a great school, but it’s the most expensive flagship for OOS and one of the most expensive flagships for in-state (only behind UIUC, Penn State, and some small-NE-state colleges.) Its lower position on this list of best value schools makes intuitive sense.
I think it is very important, if you are using ranking as a factor in college selection, to use multiple sources and criteria @GTAustin
Like you, I do think that things involved in this value list are important. It takes multiple values for cost going in and outcomes for salaries and debt going out - while also looking at a general Top Colleges ranking.
If money is no object in your college selection process - that a value ranking probably has little value to you. But if leaving school with little to no debt, while getting a degree from a school that has nationally or regionally ranked academic programs and strong salaries upon graduation, then a value list is something probably worthwhile.
Although I should know better than to even waste time asking, I’ll play along, yet again… So @riversider would you care to actually list which points you feel don’t support UTD as good value based on the criteria given in the article?
Are disputing UTD’s access to low income students?
Are you disputing UTD’s “average federal debt load per student, timely (within six years) graduation rate”?
Are you disputing UTD’s “midcareer alumni earnings (sourced from the DOE’s College Scorecard and PayScale)”?
Are you disputing UTD’s “net price, or sticker price for tuition, fees and room and board minus the grants, scholarships, and education tax benefits that students receive”?
What do YOU think makes a school a good VALUE?
This is all I said. No more, no less.
“Brigham Young University is #1 and University of Michigan #60, better take this list with salt n pepper.”
Okay @riversider I’m going to go off topic here since you have now quoted yourself. What does “better take this list with salt n pepper” even mean?
I don’t think that is an idiom in the English language. Did you intend to say “with the grain of salt” meaning to view with a degree of skepticism?
Seriously, I have no idea what you are trying to say.
Fair enough. I added pepper to emphasize inadequacy of few grains of salt for these lists. Same college can cost from $0-$300K for individual students and salaries too can vary erratically according to majors and personal competence. Families getting U Michigan education for free, wouldn’t call free BYU best or even fair value.
okay @riversider I think I understand what you are saying. You’re saying that the article isn’t valid because not EVERY student at a particular school pays the same price because they used an average across all students at each school to determine their value ranking.
I read a book when I first started thinking about colleges for my kids, I don’t recall the name, but it had some eye opening information for me. The thing that struck me the most was when the author stated that students in the same classes were not all paying the same price for their education at the same university and compared it to airline line travel where passengers in the same class on the same plane paid different fares. There are just too many variables that go into figuring the true COA for any given student: federal grants/loans, university merit, need, diversity and sport scholarships, departmental scholarships, private scholarships, instate vs. out of state…
The only US universities that I know of where everyone pays the same rate are the military service academies and those were explicitly excluded from this report.
I personally don’t care about the amount of students receiving PELL grants because I don’t think that effects the “value” of a school for my kids. I think the report would have been more helpful to me if it had only taken into consideration merit aid vs. all the other types of aid and if it factored in who actually pays instate tuition rates since many schools give instate rates as part of their merit aid (I know most Texas school do but don’t think CA school does this very often). Had they done this I’m sure UTD would be even higher in their rankings but alas, they leave it to the reader to figure out how their finding across all universities can be applied to their individual situation. I don’t believe that the finding in this report should be “taken with a grain of salt and pepper” because they used averages instead of individual statistics (which would be impossible!)