'Alternative' College Rankings Use Outcomes and Opportunity Data

Digital Learning

'Alternative' College Rankings Use Outcomes and Opportunity Data

Aug 31, 2016

<(RE)ORDERED LIST> College rankings are back. This year, Washington Monthly, which has published an alternative to U.S. News and World Report’s list of top schools since 2005, included new data in its rankings. To evaluate schools, Washington Monthly took into account newly available student outcomes and opportunity information, including how much students earn 10 years after graduation and the percentage of first-generation students at each college.

The Obama administration made this data available last year through its College Scorecard initiative.

So how does the new data affect rankings? Schools like Cal-State Fresno, Texas Woman’s University and Mercer University all show up on the list of 303 schools, even though they rarely if ever appear on conventional “best college” lists. Check out the rankings here.

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