Kiplinger's Cites Michigan Tech
HOUGHTON, MI--Michigan Tech is ranked 23rd among the top 100 values in state universities in the September 1998 issue of Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine. The University of Michigan (ranked 13th) and Michigan State University (ranked 53rd) were the only other Michigan schools to make the Kiplinger's list.
The magazine based its rankings on its own survey of public colleges and statistics provided by Wintergreen/Orchard House, which collects data each year from 1,813 North American colleges and universities, including 588 four-year public institutions. Non-U.S. schools and specialty schools, such as colleges that award degrees strictly in health sciences or fine arts, were not included in the rankings.
Then Kiplinger's pruned the list to 200 schools that merited closer attention, chosen primarily on the basis of one quality measure--selectivity--as evidenced by the SAT scores of the 1997 freshman class and the percentage of applicants who were granted admission. "It's those schools," said the magazine, "that are most in demand by strong students, and therefore most able to pick and choose, that tend to offer the best quality overall."
The magazine then applied a formula that ranked schools on quality only, taking into account graduation rates, the percentage of freshmen who return for their sophomore year, SAT scores and admission rates, and computer and library resources. The top 100 survivors were then sorted based on the quality measures plus five financial factors: total cost, cost as a percentage of a state's per-capita income (which measures affordability for residents), the percentage of a student's financial need the school meets, the percentage of that aid that is self-help (loans or work-study versus grants), and the average amount a student must borrow to graduate.
The final formula, according to the magazine, gave greater weight to quality than to financial factors, "because we were seeking value, not just economy. Our goal is not an inexpensive education but a high-caliber education at the lowest possible cost."
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill was ranked the top college value on the Kiplinger's list.
###
08/13/98-MTN108