Value-added Rankings of Colleges

CollegeThis post was adapted from a Brookings report evaluating two- and four-year colleges’ contributions to economic outcomes of their students. The report, “Beyond College Rankings: A Value-Added Approach to Assessing Two and Four Year Schools,” by Brookings Fellow Jonathan Rothwell and Senior Research Assistant Siddharth Kulkarni, offers a new tool to help prospective college students think about where to attend.
Value AddedA college’s “value-added” is the difference between the actual mid-career salary of graduates from that college and an estimation of what a student from a similar school would have earned.  While imperfect, these value-added measures improve on conventional rankings and fill a demand for greater transparency and accountability in higher education.
Five key college quality factors are strongly associated with more successful economic outcomes for alumni in terms of salary, occupational earnings power, and loan repayment:
•  Curriculum value: The amount earned by people in the workforce who hold degrees in a field of study offered by the college, averaged across all the degrees the college awards;
•  Alumni skills: The average labor market value, as determined by job openings, of skills listed on alumni resumes;
•  STEM orientation: The share of graduates prepared to work in STEM occupations;
•  Completion rates: The percentage of students finishing their award within at least twice the
normal time (four years for a two-year college, eight years for a four-year college);
•  Student aid: The average level of financial support given to students by the institution itself.
The following chart lists 4 year colleges ranked by mid-career earnings of the typical graduate. Value Added Mid Year Earnings (100 = top score)
Georgia 4 Year College Rankings

Institution City State Earnings
20 Georgia Institute of Technology-Main Campus Atlanta Ga. 98
109 Southern Polytechnic State University Marietta Ga. 88
282 Mercer University Macon Ga. 68
311 Columbus State University Columbus Ga. 65
314 University of Georgia Athens Ga. 64
426 Emory University Atlanta Ga. 51
465 Georgia Southern University Statesboro Ga. 47
488 Georgia State University Atlanta Ga. 44

Top 100 4 Year Colleges

Institution City State Earnings
1 California Institute of Technology Pasadena Calif. 100
2 Colgate University Hamilton N.Y. 100
3 Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge Mass. 100
4 Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology Terre Haute Ind. 100
5 Carleton College Northfield Minn. 100
6 Washington and Lee University Lexington Va. 100
7 SUNY Maritime College Throggs Neck N.Y. 100
8 Clarkson University Potsdam N.Y. 100
9 Manhattan College Riverdale N.Y. 99
10 Stanford University Stanford Calif. 99
11 Harvey Mudd College Claremont Calif. 99
12 Rice University Houston Texas 99
13 Marietta College Marietta Ohio 99
14 Virginia Military Institute Lexington Va. 99
15 Polytechnic Institute of New York University Brooklyn N.Y. 99
16 Worcester Polytechnic Institute Worcester Mass. 99
17 St Mary’s University San Antonio Texas 99
18 Stevens Institute of Technology Hoboken N.J. 98
19 Bradley University Peoria Ill. 98
20 Georgia Institute of Technology-Main Campus Atlanta Ga. 98
21 Missouri University of Science and Technology Rolla Mo. 98
22 Michigan Technological University Houghton Mich. 98
23 University of Rochester Rochester N.Y. 98
24 Tufts University Medford Mass. 98
25 Williams College Williamstown Mass. 98
26 University of California-Berkeley Berkeley Calif. 97
27 Westmont College Santa Barbara Calif. 97
28 Wagner College Staten Island N.Y. 97
29 Colorado School of Mines Golden Colo. 97
30 Brown University Providence R.I. 97
31 Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh Pa. 97
32 Drake University Des Moines Iowa 97
33 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Troy N.Y. 97
34 Harvard University Cambridge Mass. 97
35 Babson College Wellesley Mass. 96
36 University of Scranton Scranton Pa. 96
37 DePauw University Greencastle Ind. 96
38 Cornell University Ithaca N.Y. 96
39 Milwaukee School of Engineering Milwaukee Wis. 96
40 Santa Clara University Santa Clara Calif. 96
41 John Carroll University University Heights Ohio 96
42 LeTourneau University Longview Texas 96
43 Gettysburg College Gettysburg Pa. 96
44 Saint Mary’s College of California Moraga Calif. 95
45 Duke University Durham N.C. 95
46 Kenyon College Gambier Ohio 95
47 Lehigh University Bethlehem Pa. 95
48 Pacific Lutheran University Tacoma Wash. 95
49 Loyola University Maryland Baltimore Md. 95
50 Texas A & M University-College Station College Station Texas 95
51 Gonzaga University Spokane Wash. 95
52 Illinois Institute of Technology Chicago Ill. 94
53 Princeton University Princeton N.J. 94
54 Alfred University Alfred N.Y. 94
55 Rhodes College Memphis Tenn. 94
56 Oregon Institute of Technology Klamath Falls Ore. 94
57 University of Massachusetts-Lowell Lowell Mass. 94
58 Bucknell University Lewisburg Pa. 94
59 Prairie View A & M University Prairie View Texas 94
60 Hofstra University Hempstead N.Y. 94
61 University of Notre Dame Notre Dame Ind. 93
62 Elizabethtown College Elizabethtown Pa. 93
63 University of California-Davis Davis Calif. 93
64 Yale University New Haven Conn. 93
65 New Jersey Institute of Technology Newark N.J. 93
66 Saint Peter’s University Jersey City N.J. 93
67 Franklin and Marshall College Lancaster Pa. 93
68 College of the Holy Cross Worcester Mass. 93
69 Willamette University Salem Ore. 93
70 Whitman College Walla Walla Wash. 92
71 Wentworth Institute of Technology Boston Mass. 92
72 Lafayette College Easton Pa. 92
73 University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia Pa. 92
74 Gannon University Erie Pa. 92
75 Southern University and A & M College Baton Rouge La. 92
76 Mount St Mary’s College Los Angeles Calif. 92
77 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Champaign Ill. 92
78 University of California-Santa Barbara Santa Barbara Calif. 91
79 University of the Pacific Stockton Calif. 91
80 La Salle University Philadelphia Pa. 91
81 Occidental College Los Angeles Calif. 91
82 Swarthmore College Swarthmore Pa. 91
83 SUNY Institute of Technology at Utica-Rome Utica N.Y. 91
84 The University of Texas at Austin Austin Texas 91
85 Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University Blacksburg Va. 91
86 Wofford College Spartanburg S.C. 91
87 Ohio Northern University Ada Ohio 90
88 Case Western Reserve University Cleveland Ohio 90
89 New Mexico State University-Main Campus Las Cruces N.M. 90
90 University of Tulsa Tulsa Okla. 90
91 California Lutheran University Thousand Oaks Calif. 90
92 University of St Thomas Saint Paul Minn. 90
93 Reed College Portland Ore. 90
94 Florida Institute of Technology Melbourne Fla. 90
95 LIU Brooklyn Brooklyn N.Y. 90
96 Dickinson College Carlisle Pa. 89
97 Tennessee Technological University Cookeville Tenn. 89
98 California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo San Luis Obispo Calif. 89
99 Le Moyne College Syracuse N.Y. 89
100 Lake Forest College Lake Forest Ill. 89

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