The University of Scranton Counted Among America’s Best College Values

Forbes ranked The University of Scranton among “America’s Best Value Colleges” in its 2017 list of just “300 schools that deliver the best bang for the tuition buck based on tuition costs, school quality, post-grad earnings, student debt and graduation success.” This is the 10th consecutive year that Forbes ranked Scranton among America’s “best values” in college education, however the methodology used for the rankings over the decade has changed several times.

Scranton, ranked No. 249, was among only 20 colleges in Pennsylvania and 19 Jesuit universities ranked. Scranton was the only college in Northeast Pennsylvania listed.

The 2017 methodology compared the colleges’ cost of attendance, as measured by gross tuition and fees, with its: quality, as measured by the Forbes (2016) “Top College Ranking;” alumni earnings 10 years after graduation, as measured by Payscale and College Scorecard; student debt; on-time graduation success; “drop-out risk” (retention and graduation rates); and the number of Pell Grant recipients.

Forbes published its 2017 “America’s Best Value Colleges” ranking online this spring.

In addition to the Forbes ranking, the University has received consistent recognition for its economic value, including in a ranking by the prestigious publication The Economist that placed Scranton No. 22 in the nation for the impact it has on the earnings of its graduates. Following the premise that a “good student” would do well at any college, The Economist used regression analysis to measure the effect of an array of variables in order to determine the actual impact the college has on the earnings of a graduate. The Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program also ranked Scranton among the top 100 colleges in the nation in two separate reports that intended to measure the impact a college has on the annual earnings of its graduates.

Forbes recognized The University of Scranton among “America’s Best Value Colleges” in its 2017 list.