<p>One thing we looked at is the cost increases each college has had over the past couple of years. Given the high cost of college, an increase of 4-5% a year really makes a difference over four years.</p>
<p>Also, I don’t think the graduation rate is unrelated to financial aid. I know many merit scholarships are only good for eight semesters. There are also sometimes minimum GPA standards that can be hard to meet, so look carefully at those. It is pretty important that your niece go in with a solid plan to stay on track to graduate in four years if at all possible, since going beyond that will increase her loan amounts, too. You might want to continue to lend a hand in this area with her next year to make sure she is on track to select a major and meet all of her requirements on time. I would also be wary of schools where students have trouble getting registered for classes they need (and therefore that is one reason for low graduation rates). Might be hard info to figure out, but you could find some info out here on CC. And have her talk to her academic advisor about it during freshman year to make sure she knows of any potential bottlenecks there.</p>