| College Reality Check: New Tool for Parents and Students Amina Anderson Pringle, Member Services Manager
Measuring a degree as you would a stock investment will make many academics cringe. Applying financial metrics to higher education is often framed as trying to measure the "return on investment," or ROI, of a college degree. But supplying prospective students and their parents with information to balance what can be a very emotional decision is about more than just ROI.
Student and parents need an easy-to-use tool to figure out if a college was a good "financial fit" for them and to balance price with the likelihood of success. Students and parents need help to make better-informed choices on a range of questions like: Is the least expensive college the best deal if I don't graduate in four years? How does my monthly debt payment compare to my estimated earnings? What are the chances I'll default on my loan?
College Reality Check is designed to help parents and students easily sort through the many factors they need to consider when choosing a college. Produced by The Chronicle of Higher Education with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the tool allows users to find out how individual colleges measure up on net price, graduation rates, debt, default rates, and graduate earnings. Users can compare up to five colleges from among the nearly 3,600 in the database at the same time.
College Reality Check is part of a collection of new consumer tools, released within the last several months, which put students on more of an even playing field with colleges, which know so much more about applicants during the admissions process. Along with the federal government's College Scorecard this new data tools offer critical information to students that perhaps will help ensure that they avoid colleges where they might drop out or take on too much debt. |
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