College Affordability Index - IPEDS

<p>A new College Affordability Index is available from IPEDS based on the increase in cost of tuition and fees compared with the increase in CPI (Consumer Price Index) during a similar period of time. An index over two indicates a lack of affordability. There is also an affordability risk indicator: one means there is a “risk”.</p>

<p>I don’t really understand it very well but it sounds intriguing. Maybe some of the economists out there can enlighten me. It seems like privates are at a disadvantage because their tuition and fees are actually discounted by scholarships and grants. The tuition and fees at private colleges greatly overstates the actual cost of attendance after financial aid.</p>

<p>College Affordability Index: Percentage change in the tuition and fees charged a full-time, first-time undergraduate between the first and last of the three most recent academic years DIVIDED BY the percentage change in the CPI (all urban consumers-current series) from July of the first academic year to July of the third academic year.</p>

<p>College Affordability Risk Indicator: An institution is determined to be NOT at risk if:
-the CAI is less than or equal to 2
-or the CAI exceeds 2 but by a dollar amount less than $500
-or the tuition and fees charged a full-time first-time undergraduate student is within the least costly quartile of institutions within each sector</p>

<p>I think “sector” refers to Carnegie Classification…not sure.</p>

<p>sorted by affordability index
school, college affordability index, college affordability risk indicator</p>

<p>Miami University-Oxford 25.14 1
The University of Texas at Austin 10.63 1
University of Richmond 6.35 1
Hendrix College 6.14 1
University of Colorado at Boulder 5.38 1
University of California-Davis 4.38 1
Clemson University 4.34 1
Texas A & M University 4.27 1
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University 4.03 1
George Washington University 3.86 1
University of California-Santa Barbara 3.85 1
University of California-Berkeley 3.84 1
St Mary’s College of Maryland 3.83 1
University of Pittsburgh-Main Campus 3.73 1
Rhodes College 3.71 1
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 3.7 1
Washington and Lee University 3.67 1
University of California-Los Angeles 3.64 1
University of California-Santa Cruz 3.64 1
Mills College 3.63 1
University of Wisconsin-Madison 3.56 1
Michigan State University 3.5 1
Ohio State University-Main Campus 3.44 1
University of California-San Diego 3.42 0
University of California-Riverside 3.41 0
University of Minnesota-Twin Cities 3.38 1
The University of Tennessee 3.37 0
College of William and Mary 3.35 1
Rice University 3.31 1
University of California-Irvine 3.3 0
University of Virginia-Main Campus 3.18 0
Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus 2.97 1
Yeshiva University 2.85 1
Case Western Reserve University 2.85 1
Wofford College 2.73 1
Bennington College 2.67 1
Rutgers University-New Brunswick/Piscataway 2.61 0
Stevens Institute of Technology 2.61 1
Scripps College 2.6 1
Vassar College 2.59 1
University of Connecticut 2.58 0
Agnes Scott College 2.57 1
Boston College 2.57 1
Southwestern University 2.57 1
Furman University 2.56 1
University of Maryland-College Park 2.51 0
Fordham University 2.51 1
Barnard College 2.5 1
Presbyterian College 2.49 1
University of Michigan-Ann Arbor 2.48 0
Muhlenberg College 2.45 1
Denison University 2.44 1
Gustavus Adolphus College 2.38 1
Baylor University 2.36 0
Lehigh University 2.33 1
Carleton College 2.31 1
Ursinus College 2.3 1
University of Notre Dame 2.28 0
Virginia Military Institute 2.28 0
University of Denver 2.27 0
MacAlester College 2.27 0
Austin College 2.27 0
Wheaton College 2.25 0
St Lawrence University 2.25 0
Wake Forest University 2.25 0
Georgia Institute of Technology-Main Campus 2.24 0
Southern Methodist University 2.23 0
Juniata College 2.18 0
Georgetown University 2.16 0
University of Georgia 2.16 0
Saint Johns University 2.16 0
College of Saint Benedict 2.14 0
University of North Carolina System Office 2.12 0
California Institute of Technology 2.12 0
Centre College 2.12 0
University of Missouri-Columbia 2.11 0
Bucknell University 2.11 0
Auburn University Main Campus 2.1 0
Hobart William Smith Colleges 2.09 0
University of Puget Sound 2.08 0
University of Washington-Seattle Campus 2.07 0
Spelman College 2.06 0
Bard College 2.04 0
The College of Wooster 2.04 0
American University 2.03 0
Earlham College 2.03 0
Franklin and Marshall College 2.03 0
University of Delaware 2.02 0
Augustana College 2.02 0
Marquette University 2.02 0
Illinois Wesleyan University 2.01 0
Goucher College 2.01 0
Syracuse University 2 0
University of Iowa 1.98 0
Millsaps College 1.98 0
Reed College 1.98 0
Birmingham Southern College 1.97 0
Wellesley College 1.97 0
Williams College 1.97 0
Saint Louis University-Main Campus 1.97 0
University of Miami 1.96 0
Bates College 1.96 0
College of the Holy Cross 1.96 0
Dickinson College 1.96 0
Sewanee: The University of the South 1.96 0
Pepperdine University 1.94 0
Hope College 1.94 0
Drew University 1.94 0
Iowa State University 1.93 0
St. Olaf College 1.93 0
Kalamazoo College 1.91 0
Tulane University of Louisiana 1.9 0
Kenyon College 1.9 0
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute 1.89 0
Gettysburg College 1.89 0
Whitman College 1.89 0
Sweet Briar College 1.87 0
Smith College 1.86 0
Columbia University in the City of New York 1.86 0
Willamette University 1.86 0
New College of Florida 1.86 0
University of Southern California 1.85 0
Emory University 1.85 0
Hollins University 1.84 0
Northwestern University 1.83 0
Vanderbilt University 1.83 0
University of Florida 1.81 0
Ohio Wesleyan University 1.81 0
Lawrence University 1.81 0
Trinity College 1.8 0
Claremont McKenna College 1.79 0
Colby College 1.79 0
Hamilton College 1.79 0
New York University 1.79 0
Mount Holyoke College 1.78 0
Occidental College 1.73 0
Pitzer College 1.73 0
Harvey Mudd College 1.72 0
Connecticut College 1.72 0
Yale University 1.72 0
Thomas Aquinas College 1.71 0
Wheaton College 1.71 0
Albion College 1.71 0
Davidson College 1.71 0
Boston University 1.69 0
University of Rochester 1.69 0
Grinnell College 1.68 0
Wells College 1.68 0
Brown University 1.68 0
Harvard University 1.67 0
Sarah Lawrence College 1.67 0
Allegheny College 1.67 0
University of Chicago 1.66 0
University of Pennsylvania 1.66 0
Washington University in St Louis 1.65 0
Wabash College 1.64 0
Oberlin College 1.64 0
Beloit College 1.64 0
Princeton University 1.63 0
Pomona College 1.63 0
Colorado College 1.63 0
Skidmore College 1.63 0
Purdue University-Main Campus 1.63 0
Randolph-Macon College 1.62 0
Johns Hopkins University 1.61 0
Tufts University 1.61 0
Union College 1.6 0
Wesleyan University 1.59 0
Haverford College 1.59 0
Colgate University 1.57 0
Worcester Polytechnic Institute 1.56 0
Dartmouth College 1.55 0
Lafayette College 1.55 0
Clark University 1.54 0
Hanover College 1.53 0
Bowdoin College 1.52 0
Cornell University 1.51 0
Swarthmore College 1.51 0
Stanford University 1.48 0
Indiana University-Bloomington 1.46 0
Massachusetts Institute of Technology 1.46 0
Amherst College 1.43 0
Carnegie Mellon University 1.43 0
Brandeis University 1.41 0
DePauw University 1.4 0
Knox College 1.32 0
Brigham Young University 1.32 0
Bryn Mawr College 1.19 0
Duke University 1.13 0
Middlebury College 0.69 0
SUNY at Binghamton 0.42 0</p>

<p>Unfortunately, this scale is pretty much meaningless, because the figures they should be using are what students are ACTUALLY paying, not what the schools have written on their web sites for tuition, R&B. Of course, there is no good way to find out how much students ARE actually paying…</p>

<p>weenie-
But if you are comparing the INCREASE in tuition and fees to the INCREASE in the CPI I think these numbers are meaningful. The unknown factor in private universities is the gift aid and the only thing that would make these numbers meaningless is if gift aid fluctuated by a lot, but I don’t think the average proportion of tuition covered by gift aid fluctuates very much. As I said, I don’t understand this well, but that is my thinking.</p>