How to Measure a College’s Value

An ambitious survey finds that brand matters less than other factors in graduates’ future contentment.

Source: How to Measure a College’s Value

My comment. (In reply to Outside the Box, who wrote that

The study does not adjust for the fact that different kinds of students go to different colleges.

“You probably make a good point. (I write “probably” because we haven’t seen the actual study yet.) I do think there is a much better study of value that was done by Brookings.

That study looks at value-added (only in terms of income) by comparing mid-career salaries of grads with non-grads with the same initial qualifications.

There are lots of potential issues with the data that Brookings uses. (That’s only because many of those seekers of knowledge – aka, institutes of higher education – seem to want to keep all knowledge about themselves to themselves.) Yet, from my knowledge of some of the institutions, I find the Brookings study credible.

Though the Brookings study is better when it comes to value, the first Gallop-Purdue study made some very good points about what adds value, so I do look forward to seeing the new study.

Links to the first Gallup-Purdue study and the Brookings study – (and here) along with my personal comments and observations of those  studies can be found on my blog, inside-higher-ed .”