Second Brookings Report Places Scranton Among Top in Nation for ‘Value-added’ Contribution to Earnings of Graduates

The Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program, published Oct. 29, ranked The University of Scranton among the top 100 colleges in the nation for the increase in annual earnings it contributes to its graduates at 10 years after enrollment. Another Brookings report, published in April of 2015, placed Scranton among the top 50 colleges in the nation based on its earning scale for alumni at mid-career level.

For the second time this year, a report by the Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program puts The University of Scranton among the top 100 colleges in the nation for the increase in annual earnings it contributes to its graduates. The newest ranking, published Oct. 29, calculated a 25.4 percent earnings increase - or “value-added” - of a Scranton education, based on earnings data for alumni 10 years after enrollment. Scranton was the ninth highest-ranked college in Pennsylvania, and the fifth highest-ranked Jesuit college.

A Brookings report published in April of 2015, placed The University of Scranton among the top 50 colleges in the nation and second in Pennsylvania based on its earning scale for alumni at mid-career level. The report calculated a 31 percent earnings increase – or “value-added” – of a Scranton education at mid-career, or 10 years after graduation for those who have not gone on to earn an additional degree.

The Oct. 29 ranking is based on data published in the U.S. Department of Education’s College Scoreboard on median annual earnings reported on tax documents by graduates who applied for federal loans 10 years after enrolling in college. The Brookings Report cautioned that this data is limited to “roughly half of all students, and federal aid recipients tend to have lower family incomes than their peers.”

Both Brookings reports use statistical and mathematical measures to analyze data on economic outcomes of graduates of colleges, after adjusting for the characteristics of colleges’ incoming students and other factors, in order to determine the contributions – or “value” – that the colleges make to their graduates’ eventual economic success.

In a similar analysis, The Economist ranked The University of Scranton No. 22 in the nation for the impact it has on the earnings of its graduates. For its ranking of 1,275 four-year colleges in the United States, which was also published Oct. 29, The Economist supplemented data from College Scorecard and used regression analysis to measure the effect of an array of variables in order to determine the impact the college has on the earnings of a graduate.

The University of Scranton has received consistent recognition for its economic value, including national rankings such as U.S. News & World Report’s “Great Schools, Great Prices,” MONEY magazine’s “Best Colleges for your Money” and Forbes and The Center for College Affordability and Productivity’s ranking of “America’s Top Colleges 2015.”