Westmont Tops New College Rankings
Two new college rankings list Westmont among the top schools in the nation. Business Insider names it one of the 50 Most Underrated Colleges in America, and Princeton Review recognizes Westmont among Colleges That Pay You Back: The 200 Best-Value Colleges, “the best overall bargains based on cost and financial aid among the most academically outstanding colleges in the nation.”
Business Insider features the top 50 schools whose graduates make much higher salaries than their U.S. News rankings would suggest. The New York-based business and technology news website considered both the 2015 U.S. News & World Report ratings and PayScale’s 2013-2014 College Salary Report (which focuses on the mid-career salaries of graduates) to identify underrated institutions. Westmont tied for No. 41 in the Business Insider ranking with Auburn University, Stonehill College, the University of Tulsa and the University of St. Thomas.
The Princeton Review developed a unique return-on-education (ROE) rating to winnow its list of the 200 colleges for their new book, “Colleges That Pay You Back: The 200 Best Value Colleges and What It Takes to Get In—2015 Edition.” ROE measures 40 weighted data points—everything from academics, cost, financial aid, and student debt to statistics on graduation rates, alumni salaries and job satisfaction. The company based the ROE rating on data it collected in 2013-14 from surveys of administrators and students at 650 colleges, plus surveys conducted by PayScale.com through April 2014 of alumni from the same schools. The list also appears online at www.princetonreview.com/colleges-pay-you-back.
“Both these rankings recognize the tremendous success and achievements of our alumni as well as the excellence of our academic program,” says President Gayle D. Beebe. “We prepare our graduates to not only thrive in all spheres of society but to become leaders in all spheres of society. We’re proud of what they’ve accomplished.”
Last September, U.S. News ranked Westmont in the top 100 best liberal arts colleges for the sixth straight year. The Washington Post listed Westmont as No. 15 in the nation for colleges and universities with the greatest salary growth between average starting and average mid-career salaries. A Forbes magazine story identified Westmont as No. 23 among the national liberal arts colleges whose graduates earn the highest salaries.