http://time.com/money/best-colleges/rank...-colleges/

On the upside: JMU continues to be a "best buy" and is #28 among public colleges (#46 overall). Interesting that William & Mary is #40 among publics and #76 overall.

On the other hand: Tech is #13 among publics and #23 overall. We're not even third in the state -- that honor goes to VMI (#24/#41). Also, I hate these stupid surveys. Yet, here I am posting this.

Overall, though, good vibes for Madison in this.

This is clearly an oversimplification in the value of one specific college over another, simply basing the value of the education on two variables...overall cost and early career earnings.

By and large, all technical schools should be at the top, with much higher percentages of students graduating with degrees in basic engineering/computer X degree/etc, all of which have relatively high starting salaries.

The flip-side is that most liberal arts schools should be at the bottom.

However, schools such as WM and other liberal arts institutions have exceedingly high graduate school matriculation rates and as such, often have high income ceilings.

If a student's intention is to go to a liberal arts school, major in art history, and then wonder why they arent making any money, then yes, this information would be useful. Otherwise, it should be thrown into the trash heap along with most rankings.

(07-12-2017 05:03 PM)nogretheogre Wrote:  This is clearly an oversimplification in the value of one specific college over another, simply basing the value of the education on two variables...overall cost and early career earnings.

By and large, all technical schools should be at the top, with much higher percentages of students graduating with degrees in basic engineering/computer X degree/etc, all of which have relatively high starting salaries.

The flip-side is that most liberal arts schools should be at the bottom.

However, schools such as WM and other liberal arts institutions have exceedingly high graduate school matriculation rates and as such, often have high income ceilings.

If a student's intention is to go to a liberal arts school, major in art history, and then wonder why they arent making any money, then yes, this information would be useful. Otherwise, it should be thrown into the trash heap along with most rankings.

Graduation rates and student debt also played an important factor in the Money Mag rankings. Those are hard-core data points that elevated the more highly ranks schools, and placed JMU in esteemed company...including institutions that offer some of the top art history programs in the country.