To construct the Affordable Elites ranking, we started with the 224 colleges in our rankings with a Barron’s competitiveness score of “very competitive plus,” “highly competitive,” “highly competitive plus,” or “most competitive.” These colleges were then ranked on a 3-point scale on each of five measures reflecting access, affordability, and student outcomes, with the maximum […]
Robert Kelchen
Robert Kelchen, a professor of education at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, is the Data Editor of the Washington Monthly College Guide.
Robert is on Bluesky @robertkelchen.com.
Posted inEducation, Higher Education, Magazine, September/October 2014
America’s Affordable Elite Colleges 2014
Which selective schools give high-achieving non-wealthy students a break in price, and which break their bank accounts?
Posted inEducation, Higher Education, Magazine, September/October 2014
America’s Best-Bang-for-the-Buck Colleges 2014
Our exclusive list of schools that help non-wealthy students attain marketable degrees at affordable prices.
Posted inEducation, Higher Education
Are Some Elite Colleges Understating Net Prices?
As a faculty member researching higher education finance, I’m used to seeing the limitations in federal data available to students and their families as they choose colleges. For example, the net price of attendance measure (measured as tuition and fees, room and board, books, and other expenses less any grants received) is only for first-time, […]
Posted inEducation, Higher Education
Building a Better Student Loan Default Measure
Student loan default rates have been a hot political topic as of late given increased accountability pressures at the federal level. Currently, colleges can lose access to all federal financial aid (grants as well as loans) if more than 25% of students defaulted on their loans within two years of leaving college for three consecutive […]
Posted inEducation, Higher Education
Should Colleges Be Able to Determine Costs of Living?
I was reading through the newest National Center for Education Statistics report with just-released federal data on the cost of college and found some interesting numbers. (The underlying data are available under the “preliminary release” tab of the IPEDS Data Center.) Table 2 of the report shows the change in inflation-adjusted costs for tuition and […]
Posted inEducation, Higher Education
State Financial Aid Application Deadlines-A Lousy Rationing Tool
Financial aid reform has become a hot political topic in Washington as of late, with legislation introduced or pending from Senate Democrats, House Republicans, and the bipartisan pair of Senators Lamar Alexander (R-TN) and Michael Bennet (D-CO). (Here is a nice summary of the pieces of legislation from the National College Access Network.) All three […]
Posted inEducation, Higher Education
Exploring Trends in Pell Grant Receipt and Expenditures
The U.S. Department of Education released its annual report on the federal Pell Grant program this week, which is a treasure trove of information about the program’s finances and who is receiving grants. The most recent report includes data from the 2012-13 academic year, and I summarize the data and trends over the last two […]
Posted inEducation, Higher Education
The Ticking Student Loan Time Bomb: The Forgiveness Tax
What to do about the rising amount of student loan debt has recently taken center stage in domestic policy discussions, as the average student who completes a bachelor’s degree and takes out debt now has a student loan burden of around $30,000. Media reports love focusing on those with much larger amounts of debt—who tend […]
Posted inEducation, Higher Education
Unit Record Data Won’t Doom Students
The idea of a national unit record database in higher education, in which the U.S. Department of Education gathers data on individual students’ demographic information, college performance, and later outcomes, has been controversial for years—and not without good reason. Unit record data would represent a big shift in policy from the current institutional-level data collection […]
