all those figures must be incredibly labor intensive. Imagine calling hundreds or thousands of schools to ask about the average financial aid package, graduation rates, test score ranges, and many
other mind-numbing figures.
Researching colleges, however, isn’t nearly as hard for publishers or families as you might assume. In this chapter, you’ll discover the following online resources that will make the job much easier.
The Education Trust (www.collegeresults.org)
One of my favorite higher ed resources is The Education Trust,
which is a nonprofit organization that advocates for greater educational
achievements among students of all ages and backgrounds. The
trust’s database, which is called College Results Online, provides a ton
of statistics on individual schools from graduation rates to freshman
retention rates to the most popular degrees granted and much more.
The database also provides invaluable graduation statistics on individual
schools for a variety of minority groups.
Perhaps the most amazing feature is the ability to compare the statistics
of similar academic institutions. And here’s the great part: You
don’t even have to know what schools are similar to compare and contrast
them. The software does it for you. These comparisons can be
quite eye opening.
To illustrate what the database can do, I randomly picked Gonzaga
University in Spokane, Washington. Using the tool, I discovered that
78.4% of the students at Gonzaga, which is nationally known for its
basketball team, obtain a degree in six years. That’s a very respectable
graduation rate; nationwide, the average six-year graduation rate for a
private, nonprofit school is 63.5%. I then checked to see how successful
the university was in ushering the kids out the door in four years.
The graduation rate dropped to 54.8%, which was not nearly as good
as many of Gonzaga’s competitors.
I knew Gonzaga didn’t fare as well as some of its peers because
you can use the tool to compare any school to the 15, 25, or even 50
most similar institutions. For the Catholic university, Education Trust
concluded that the 15 most similar schools (almost all had a religious
affiliation) included Hanover College in Hanover, Indiana; Hope College
in Holland, Michigan; University of Dallas (Texas); University of
San Diego (California); Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa; Marquette
University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Millsaps College in Jackson,
Mississippi; and Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minnesota.
Among these 15 peers, only the four-year graduation rates of Butler
University in Indianapolis, Indiana, and University of Tulsa
(Oklahoma)—54.6% and 43.2%, respectively—were worse.
In contrast, the trio of schools with the best four-year graduation
rates—all above 70%—were Gustavus Adolphus, Xavier University
in Cincinnati, Ohio, and Elon University in Elon, North Carolina.
Gonzaga did rise back near the top of the list for five- and six-year
graduation rates.
By playing with the Education Trust’s tools, you can discover
promising schools that you didn’t know existed or become more cautious
about others. Every search can generate something unexpected.
For instance, when I took a look at Rhodes College, an excellent
school in Memphis, Tennessee, what struck me were the statistics of
other liberal arts colleges in the same cohort. The 15 liberal arts
schools grouped with Rhodes included Dickinson College in Carlisle,
Pennsylvania; Colorado College in Colorado Springs, Colorado; Sewanee:
The University of The South in Sewanee, Tennessee; Kalamazoo
(Michigan) College; and St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota.
Rhodes’s four-year graduation rate was very good at 77.2%, but
what attracted my attention was the school at the bottom of the list—
Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts. The school posted the
worst four-year graduation rate by a significant amount, and it also
spent the least amount on its students. According to the database,
Hampshire, which recently had 1,265 students enrolled, spent
$15,066 per student in 2005, the most recent year of statistics. In contrast,
the vast majority of its peers spent at least $21,000 per pupil.
Hampshire could only muster a four-year graduation rate of 52.2%.
And this is a school that recently was charging over $46,000 a year for
tuition and room and board!
I encountered just as many eye openers when I looked at major research
universities. Many California families will be amazed at what I
discovered when I typed in the University of California, Davis, which
is a highly respected research institution. UC Davis’s four-year graduation
rate was only 42.1%. The graduation rate of UCLA, one of Davis’s
sister schools, was 57%, which was better, but nothing to brag about for
a university that admits only the most academically gifted students.
When reviewing the 15 most similar schools that Education Trust
had grouped with UC Davis, I was fascinated to see which schools
fared better. On the list, which was predominated by public universities,
the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, topped all its competitors
with a four-year graduation rate of 70.5%. The University of
Michigan, Ann Arbor, came in a close second at 69.7%. Some other
universities that beat out UC Davis and UCLA would stump most
people, such as Miami University in Oxford, Ohio (65.5%) and the
University of Delaware in Newark, Delaware (62.4%).
Of course, graduation rates are only one of innumerable measures
of a school. But it’s an important yardstick. Spending one or two extra
years in college can not only be frustrating but also financially debilitating.
Tuition and room and board at UCLA, for instance, was more
than $19,000 for in-state students and more than $39,000 for outsiders
clamoring to get into the school.
College Navigator (http://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/)
Suppose your child thinks she wants to be an occupational therapist
but doesn’t know what universities offer this major. Or maybe she
wants to be an archaeologist or an architect or a dancer and wants to
find schools either nearby or perhaps across the country.
An excellent resource to find candidates is through the federal
College Navigator. The data is collected by the National Center for
Education Statistics, which is within the U.S. Department of Education.
The Navigator provides information on more than 7,000 two- and
four-year institutions, as well as career and technical schools.
You can find schools that offer a particular major within individual
states or regions, such as the Rocky Mountains, the Great Lakes, and
the Southwest. When I typed “occupational therapy” into the search engine
without designating any region, I got 88 hits, from Alabama State
University in Montgomery, Alabama, to Xavier University in Cincinnati,
Ohio. The more popular the major, the greater the number of hits.
When I typed in “business” as a major, 2,344 schools appeared. In comparison,
I discovered only 190 schools that provide degrees in dance.
After generating a list of candidates, you can click on any of the
school links to obtain a great deal of information about the campus, including
admission statistics, graduation and retention rates, financial
aid information, a breakdown of the degrees of graduating seniors,
and more.
U-CAN, or University & College Accountability Network
www.ucan-network.org/
You can find hundreds of profiles of private colleges and universities
at this relatively new site. The information compiled on all these
schools is presented in a standardized form so it’s very easy to navigate
through the site. You can find statistics for individual schools on
such things as average debt of graduating seniors, most popular
degrees, freshmen retention rate, geographic and academic profile of
incoming freshmen, housing options, transfer policies, study abroad
opportunities, and much more. The site is the creation of the National
Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, which is the
largest organization representing nonprofit schools in the country.
Common Data Set
Much of the material used by college guides is extracted each year
from the Common Data Set, which I’ve mentioned in earlier chapters.
The Common Data Set was dreamed up as a way to satisfy publishers,
who have a voracious appetite for higher education statistics. Schools
provide figures in an annual uniform report that covers such areas as
student retention and graduation rates, characteristics of the freshman
class, expenses, degrees conferred by major, transfer policies, academic
programs, and much more.
The statistics in a school’s Common Data Set are more exhaustive
than what you’ll find in college guides. Many college reference books,
for instance, state the percentage of students who graduate after six
years, but they fail to report what percentage graduates on time. That’s
a frustrating omission. The data set, however, includes the number of
students who graduate in four, five, and six years.
Many, but not all colleges and universities, post their Common
Data Set on their Web sites for any visitor to see. Often the data is
stored in a school’s institutional research section. An easy way to find
it is to type “Common Data Set” into a school’s online search engine.
Or use Google to find the form for a particular school.
If you can’t locate this mother lode of data online, contact the
school and ask for it.
CollegeConfidential.com
This is an online watering hole for countless students and parents
who are trying to educate themselves about the college process, as
well as learn more about individual schools. The site’s college discussion
forums, many of which focus on individual schools, generate millions
of page views every month. You can post your own questions or
simply read current and archived discussions. You can also send
queries to a panel of college experts through the site’s “Ask the Dean” section.
CollegeBoard.com
CollegeBoard.com is another resource to consult if you want to
compile lists of schools that offer a particular major. The site’s Match-
Maker tool allows you to find schools based on your criteria, including
desired majors. The tool also allows you to narrow your hunt for
schools by using such factors as the type of school, location, campus
life, and costs.
Wikipedia.com
When researching, it’s worth checking out what Wikipedia has to
say about schools that interest you. In looking for random schools on
Wikipedia, I didn’t come up with any institutions that weren’t covered.
From Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago to Whitman College
in Walla Walla, Washington, to Fordham University in New York City
to Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina. Some of the coverage
is more detailed and helpful than others.
The Wikipedia’s write-up of Fordham University, for example,
runs quite a few pages. Prospective students who research Fordham
through Wikipedia will learn that all the undergraduate colleges at
Fordham share a liberal arts core curriculum that consists of 17 to 21
courses drawn from nine disciplines. Teenagers reading about Whitman
College will discover that roughly 50% of graduates attend graduate
schools within five years.
Of course, keep in mind that Wikipedia postings are anonymous.
Anyone can type in an entry or edit an existing one. Obviously,
Wikipedia should only supplement your research.
Action Plan
Take advantage of free Internet tools to learn a lot about colleges in
a short period of time.
Source: The College Solution: A Guide for Everyone Looking for the Right School at the Right Price
