Dave Berry examines a new report listing which schools offer the best ROI in each state: https://insights.collegeconfidential.com/best-value-college
Huzzah! Just what we’ve been waiting for, another poorly conceived, context-free algorithm in search of a problem! Here’s a nice coherent list that features several online schools, FOUR maritime academies (including a service academy requiring years of post-graduate enlistment), FIVE schools with Science or Technology in the name, and BYU with the Mormons. Happy hunting!
There’s no way that an online for-profit school with very limited majors is the “best value” in Minnesota. We have excellent public universities, as well as some great private colleges and universities that offer generous need-based and/or merit aid, where you can get a quality education. I’m assuming the online school made the list because the “cost of attendance” is artificially low since you can’t live on campus; their “off campus room and board” cost is completely unrealistic at ~4K/year.
I assume the rest of the list is equally bad.
Hmmm… the “best value college” in Minnesota has a 17.1% graduation rate. So I guess that USNews thinks that paying 3 years tuition to Cappella “University” and not getting a degree is the Best Value one can get in Minnesota.
But, hey, they have A Nice Graphic!
This is a misleading list. The school called “best value” in Colorado is in fact the University of Colorado MEDICAL CAMPUS which offers no undergraduate degrees. As such this piece of information is pretty useless for the vast majority of College Confidential users.
TextbookRush, labeled as a blog, appears to be the source for this.
A for-profit school with a 22% graduation rate, which was recently fined for unfair and deceptive business practices, appears on this list, published by a company that sells textbooks online.
Including a bunch of info about how USNews does a value analysis, which has nothing to do with how this list is constructed, lends credibility to something that should not receive it.
It’s not worth reading, let alone analyzing, IMHO.
As an alternative source regarding value, Kiplinger’s offers an analysis that is current and appears respectable:
https://amp.kiplinger.com/article/college/T014-C000-S002-best-college-values-2019.html
Links appear for private universities, private liberal arts colleges and public universities, as well as for a combined ranking.
“Best Value” depends on many factors, including your family finances, your stats, and your interests. If you’re from a low to middle income family, you want a liberal arts degree, and you can get into Yale … then Yale may be a better “value” than UConn Stamford.