<p>Sometimes a report of student results for a test or survey show how that college did in comparison to its peers.</p>
<p>Where is a listing of colllege peer groups?</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■%5B/url%5D”>www.■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■</a> is a good site. Of course, any list of “peer schools” is going to be subjective, but I find that this site does a pretty good job in selecting peer groups for comparison purposes.</p>
<p>Thanks, lderochi, this is just the kind of site I was seeking.</p>
<p>You can sort schools by median SAT score, for example, which is helpful.</p>
<p>There is a column which notes a dollar figure for “instruction, academic support, etc.” </p>
<p>What does this figure reflect? For the ivies, it’s $50,000 or so, while for small less selective LAC’s, it’s in the mid teens.</p>
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<p>That’s a figure collected by the federal government to try to gauge how much of college spending (which is heavily subsidized by your taxes and mine) goes to help students learn. There are federal definitions for what kinds of spending fit into those categories and what kinds of spending fit into other categories. </p>
<p>If your question is asking, as I think it is, can there really be that much of a difference in the student experience between those different categories of colleges, the answer is yes. I have been quite amazed at what can be done, ever so lavishly, for students at the best-funded colleges.</p>
<p>wow, love this site. Thanks, Iderochi</p>
<p>great site Iderochi! I noticed some rather disturbing data on graduation rates for some target schools, e.g U Rochester, JHU, CMU, Tufts, others. Why would these schools have 4 yr graduation rates significanly lower than the top of peer group? One guess is sizable engineering progams which may tend to require >4 yrs or higher dropout rates…</p>
<p>I was wondering if this figure could be used as a rough guide to whether one was getting “their money’s worth” at various schools.</p>
<p>For example, at an Ivy where full tuition is $37,000, you are receiving $50,000 worth of services. So even paying full freight, you are benefiting from their endowment.</p>
<p>But at a top 50 LAC, where full tuition is the same $37,000, you are receiving $25,000 worth of academic services. So you are subsidizing others at a rate of $12,000?</p>
<p>This was just a very interesting number that I’ve never come across before.</p>
<p>I took an extra year to graduate at my chosen college because I hard to work my way through school. One of the ways that that lessened the college experience for me is that I didn’t stay with the same cohort of students in my major courses. Students starting at a college and not graduating from there in a reasonable amount of time could be </p>
<p>a) able students who don’t have enough financial support to keep going to school steadily (although the case I know best still graduated well within the six-year reporting time span), </p>
<p>b) less able students who can’t complete the course work, </p>
<p>or </p>
<p>c) more able students who transfer out to another college. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, if there is a LOT of any of those situations, that is a sign that it might be a good idea to look at another college. I know two men in my generation who both finished four-year degree programs in four years at FOUR different colleges each, transferring each year to a new college. (One of those two men ended up at my alma mater as his final college, the one from which he got his degree.) A lot of students don’t put up with unsatisfactory college experiences–they get out and try something else. Alas, my alma mater still has an appallingly low four-year graduation rate, and only a marginally acceptable six-year graduation rate. That university’s internal studies indicate that that is because most students are working their way through school and limit their credit loads so that they have time each week to work for money. The university is trying to find more sources of financial aid for more students and providing a financial incentive (registering for more than a specified number of credits per semester has the same price, no matter how many additional credits) for students to complete their degrees faster. The colleges with higher graduation rates often have more able students, more able classmates and more challenging and interesting courses, and better financial aid to get the students through in time.</p>
<p>You can change the parameters to graduation in 5 or 6 years.</p>
<p>Interesting that the top 4 schools for highest percentage graduation rate in 4 years are in the Patriot League: Holy Cross: Colgate, Lafayette, Bucknell.</p>
<p>^^ about graduation rate, check the different comparison groups. Not all colleges get compared to all other colleges. Enter Harvard, Yale, and a few other schools to see if they are even in the same comparison group for graduation rates.</p>
<p>Thanks Tokenadult. I see what you are saying.</p>
<p>I love that site. It has lots of useful information. however, as has been discussed on CC before, I would urge caution in attempting to interpret these student related or instructional expenses as “getting your money’s worth”.</p>
<p>Looking at the group of colleges with median SAT above 1400, one finds Yale spending twice as much as Harvard or Princeton. I find it impossible to believe that this accurately reflects the student experience at the three places. If Yale is really spending that much, why don’t Yale grads do dramatically better than H or P grads when the finish? Given equally talented students on entry, either Yale is producing far more capable graduates, or they are wasting a huge amount of money. I think the real answer is that this simply does not tell us what they are spending the money on. Different colleges account for the same expenses in different ways.</p>