Who's #1 on the College Scene, and do Ratings Matter?

As happens at this time each year, U.S. News and World Report garnered a great deal of attention for the recent release of its Best Colleges rankings. For the 7th consecutive year, New Jersey’s Princeton University ranked #1 in the category of Best National Universities. Harvard University took second place, with Yale and the University of Chicago tied for third. While this is the story reported on the evening news, the rankings actually offer so much more information that is actually quite useful to college bound students.

The U.S. News rankings focus on academic excellence, with particular emphasis on student outcomes such as freshman retention and graduation rates. Before investing in a college education, students and their families should particularly consider the numbers in these two areas.

Freshman retention rate is the percent of college students who return to the school for their sophomore year. Every college loses a few students, for a gamut of reasons. But a low retention rate should raise a red flag. New Jersey colleges with a high freshman retention rate, in addition to Princeton, include The College of New Jersey, Rutgers University (New Brunswick) and Stevens Institute of Technology.

Likewise of great importance should be the graduation rate of any college under consideration. But here the numbers can be a bit misleading. For its rankings, U.S. News considers the percent of students who graduate within six years –not four years, which is what many college bound students and their parents typically expect. The average six year graduate rate is 96 percent for the top 10 National Universities, and 72 percent for all numerically ranked National Universities. When visiting colleges, families may want to inquire about the average four year graduation rate – if that’s what they’re budgeting for!

Since students are also concerned about their likelihood of securing gainful employment in their field of study after graduation, U.S. News, for the first time, has included postgraduate salary information on 1,000 schools. Subscribers to the U.S. News online College Compass can view salaries broken down by major per school.

So even if families don’t care whether Princeton beat out Harvard in the rankings again this year, there is a great deal of invaluable information in the newly released 2018 U.S. News guide that would greatly benefit all college bound students and their parents.

Susan Alaimo is the founder and director of SAT Smart that has been preparing students for the PSAT, SAT, and ACT exams with Ivy League instructors for over 20 years. Visit www.SATsmart.com or call 908-369-5362