Forbes magazine has ranked Wagner College among the 300 Best Value Colleges in the nation, according to its newest analysis of research universities and liberal arts colleges throughout the United States.
For the past 3 years, Wagner has appeared on Forbes’ America’s Top Colleges list.
“A Google search of ‘is college worth it?’ yields nearly 500 million hits,” observes Forbes editor Caroline Howard in her introduction to the new Forbes 300 Best Value Colleges list. “With a college degree still a near universal aspiration in this country, Forbes looks at the U.S. colleges and universities that provide students with the most value for the dollar. In partnership with the Center for College Affordability and Productivity, this is our newly reimagined Best Value Colleges ranking, an analysis of the brainiest research universities and leading liberal arts schools, both public and private, that are well worth the investment.”
Rankings for the Forbes 300 Best Value Colleges were based on the following six criteria:
1) Quality (35%): This is based on the 2015 FORBES Top Colleges ranking. Full methodology is here.
2) Drop-out risk (15%): Based not on the percentage of students who do not graduate in six years as reported by the schools to the Department of Education database (IPEDS).
3) Graduation success (15%): Based on the average expected number of years it takes to graduate — of those who do graduate within six years.
4) Post-graduate earnings (25%): We use our own blended model of mid-career earnings (meaning at least 10 years of working), based both on PayScale and the new U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard.
5) Value-added (10%): Using “A Value-Added Approach To Assessing Two- And Four-Year Schools,” created last year by the Brookings Institution. Most simply put, this list is “an attempt to isolate the effect colleges themselves have on those outcomes [like salaries], above and beyond what students’ backgrounds would predict.”
6) Gross tuition and fees: Pulled from IPEDS, this is the sticker price without accounting for room and board.
Wagner College was ranked #222 by Forbes among all 300 Best Value Colleges, including large research universities and small liberal arts colleges, both public and private, nationwide. Wagner College was ranked #96 by Forbes among all colleges and universities in the Northeast, and #164 among private colleges nationwide.
Earlier this year, the Princeton Review ranked Wagner College among the best value colleges in America in its new guidebook, “Colleges That Pay You Back: The 200 Schools That Give You the Best Bang for Your Tuition Buck – 2016 Edition.”
In addition: