Money Magazine has revamped its college ranking system into a star-tier list, and with it, it has named 34 colleges and universities to its five-star category.
Money, an American personal finance website that writes about mortgages, loans, credit, investing and more, revamped its list due to the changing needs of lower- and middle-class Americans looking for the best investment based on what they personally value amid higher education’s inflated price tag.
“Everybody’s interested in the ROI on their education because college education is very expensive,” said Sue Harbour, associate dean and executive director of the career center at the University of California, Berkeley, one of the 5-star schools, according to Money. “People want to know: Is it worth my time and my money?”
Jenny Nagaoka, deputy director of the UChicago Consortium on School Research, adds that the difference between a number one ranked school and a number five is null if the latter’s academic fit, social fit, college outcomes and affordability are better tailored for a specific student.
Thus, Money focuses on creating a “best college” ranking that highlights a mix of small liberal arts colleges and big-brand universities rather than regurgitating the handful of prestigious institutions that applicants and their families are already well-aware of. For example, while endowment-rich MIT and Stanford University are highly ranked (as expected) due to their ability to discount student tuition deeply, smaller schools such as Elmhurst University and St. Olaf College also rank highly due to their exceptional graduation rates and grant rewards.
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Ranking Methodology
Institutions had to have at least 500 undergraduates enrolled, sufficient data that allows for analysis, be financially sturdy and boast a graduation rate at or above the median for its institutional category to be considered for the ranking. As a result, 736 colleges were considered.
Money analyzed these institutions across 26 data points, then organized them into three categories. Note that affordability held the most substantial sway over the editors’ college ranking, aligning with their mission to present applicants with institutions that will least likely break the bank.
- Quality of education (weighed 30%): graduation rates, Pell Grant recipient outcomes, peer quality, student-to-faculty ratio, etc.
- Affordability (weighed 40%): degree net price, debt, ability to repay debt, etc.
- Student outcomes (weighed 30%): earnings 10 years after college, economic mobility, ROI, etc.
List of 5-star schools
The 5-star list is undersigned in alphabetical order. Money does not grant any of these colleges a leg-up over the other. It instead asks students to analyze these schools based on their best fit for them and choose accordingly.
The states with the most 5-star colleges are California (7), Massachusetts (5), Illinois (3) and New York (3).
