<p>Several objective ways:</p>
<p>Location: you should expect that most graduates will stay within a few hundred mile radius of their campus. But how far away have the graduates found employment within their fields? A high quality school should have graduates landing jobs and graduate school acceptances far beyond the borders of their state.</p>
<p>Income: income ranges are govern by location. Nevertheless, are the incomes within the majors at or exceeding the median compensation for that degree.</p>
<p>Graduate school opportunities: are the graduates able to land admission to competitive graduate schools. This will give you an indication for the academic reputation and preparation provided by that college.</p>
<p>Jobs: are graduates able to land jobs within the largest companies or organization for their fields. This will indicate whether opportunities are closed or open to graduates based on their schools.</p>
<p>Loan Default: this is a little tougher to use because other than the raw data that I’ve seen, I haven’t encountered a good resource that contained metrics for this in a usable way. But you should look at these rates when comparing schools and find out why rates are high (unemployment, lack of scholarships, etc.)</p>
<p>Subjective factors should be left to the individual. Have other graduates achieved your goals.</p>