Last August, President Obama announced the federal government was going to create a college rating system that should be completed by 2015. According to the U.S. Department of Education, this will, "challenge states to fund public colleges based on performance."
While this new rating system will undoubtedly alienate a select group of institutions, it could mean significant amounts of additional funding for schools that satisfy the requirements.
With that in mind, I've dug into the three major criteria that the rating system will address, and uncovered 15 public colleges that are in a position to gain. The three criteria are as follows: access, affordability, and outcomes.
1. Access
This will be the first criteria addressed in the slideshow below. The Department of Education suggested it will analyze student access using metrics such as, "percent of students receiving Pell grants."
With the help of statistics gathered by U.S. News, I'll use percent of students receiving grants, and percent of student's needs that were met. Those institutions that offered the most financial support rated highly in access.
2. Affordability
The Department of Education views affordability as a mixture of the net price of college, and total student-loan debt.
Since there can be enormous variability in net price based on household income, the slideshow will judge colleges based strictly on the average of in-state and out-of-state tuition.
3. Outcomes
This is viewed as a combination of earnings of graduates and graduation rates. This is, perhaps, the most controversial of the three criteria. This is because schools that pump out more business and engineering majors will have the highest graduate incomes.
To which, the Department of Education suggests it has a responsibility to show future students the most lucrative avenues. Payscale.com was used to collect average graduate incomes.
The 15 college that could benefit from a government ratings system are in the slideshow below.
