NEW YORK, Feb. 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- The Princeton Review
(www.princetonreview.com) today released the 2016 edition of its
annual guide to colleges that the education services company
considers the nation's best for academics, affordability/financial
aid, and for getting their graduates out the door to satisfying and
rewarding careers.
Colleges That Pay You Back: The 200 Schools That Give You the
Best Bang for Your Tuition Buck – 2016 Edition (Penguin
Random House / Princeton Review, $21.99, February 2)
addresses two of the most pressing concerns of college applicants
and their parents: paying for college and finding a job that pays
back on that investment.
The Princeton Review selected these schools based on a
comprehensive analysis of more than 650 colleges that weighted 40+
data points to tally ROI (return on investment) ratings for the
schools. Data analyzed covered academics, cost, financial aid,
graduation rates, student debt and more. The company collected that
data from its 2014-15 surveys of administrators and students at the
schools. It also factored in data from PayScale.com collected
through April 2015 on starting and
mid-career salaries of alumni of the schools.
"On so many fronts that matter to parents and students alike,
these colleges are truly standouts," said Robert Franek, The Princeton Review's Senior
VP/Publisher and lead author, Colleges That Pay You Back.
"They offer outstanding academics and generous financial aid
to students with need and/or charge a relatively low cost of
attendance. Some, phenomenally, do both. Their students also have
access to extraordinary career services programs and a lifetime of
alumni connections and post-grad support."
Colleges That Pay You Back has detailed school profiles,
plus seven ranking lists: one titled "Top 50 Colleges That Pay You
Back" (based on Princeton Review's ROI ratings), and six "Top 25"
lists. The full lists, profiles, and information on the
project methodology are accessible at
www.princetonreview.com/colleges-pay-you-back.
On the "Top 50 Colleges That Pay You Back" list, the top five
schools are:
- California Institute of Technology
(Pasadena, CA)
- Princeton University (Princeton, NJ)
- The Cooper Union for the Advancement of
Science and Art (New York,
NY)
- Harvey Mudd College (Claremont, CA)
- Massachusetts Institute of
Technology (Cambridge,
MA)
On the six additional lists (each naming 25 colleges), the
categories and #1 schools are:
- "Best Career Placement"– Harvey Mudd
College (Claremont,
CA)
- "Best Financial Aid" – Vassar
College (Poughkeepsie,
NY)
- "Best Schools for Internships" –George Washington University (Washington, DC)
- "Best Alumni Network" – Dartmouth
College (Hanover, NH)
- "Best Schools for Making an Impact" – University of North Carolina at Asheville
(Asheville, NC)
- "Top Colleges That Pay You Back For Students With No
Demonstrated Need – California Institute of
Technology (Pasadena,
CA)
The Colleges That Pay You Back project is an expansion of
The Princeton Review's annual Best Value Colleges book and
list first published in 2004. The company expanded it in response
to findings of its 2015 College Hopes & Worries Survey
(www.princetonreview.com/college-hopes-worries) that polled 12,000
college applicants and parents. Franek noted, "While 100% of
our respondents viewed college as 'worth it,' worries about college
costs and job prospects ran deep. Ninety percent reported financial
aid would be 'very necessary' to pay for college, and 40% said
their college choice would be the school 'best for my (my child's)
career interests.'"
Among the 200 colleges (publics and privates) profiled, the:
- average grant to students with need is $24,500
- median starting salary of graduates is $50,488 / median mid-career salary is
$93,775.
At the 66 public colleges profiled, the:
- average cost of attendance (sticker price minus average grant)
is $12,306 for in-state students
receiving need-based aid
- average admission rate is 52.3%.
Colleges That Pay You Back also has a list of "Great
Schools for the Highest Paying Majors" and profiles of nine
tuition-free schools. It is one of 150 Princeton Review books
published by Penguin Random House in a line that includes The
Best 380 Colleges, known for its 62 categories of college
rankings, and Paying For College Without Going Broke.
The Princeton Review has infographics on this project at
www.princetonreview.com/colleges-pay-you-back. They show
College Board 2015 statistics on college costs and financial aid
and Princeton Review information about some top schools on the
book's "Best Financial Aid" and "Colleges That Pay You Back"
ranking lists.
About The Princeton Review
The Princeton Review is a leading tutoring, test prep and college
admission services company. Every year, it helps millions of
college- and graduate school-bound students achieve their education
and career goals through online and in person courses delivered by
a network of more than 4,000 teachers and tutors, online resources,
and its more than 150 print and digital books published by Penguin
Random House. The Princeton Review is headquartered in Natick, MA and is an operating business of
Match Group (NASDAQ: MTCH). For more information, visit
www.princetonreview.com. Follow the company on Twitter
@theprincetonrev.
About Penguin Random House / Princeton Review Books
Penguin Random House LLC (www.penguinrandomhouse.com) is the
world's largest English-language general trade book publisher. Its
250 imprints publish more than 70,000 digital and 15,000 print
books annually, with more than 100,000 eBooks available worldwide.
Among them are best-selling and award-winning fiction, non-fiction
and children's books. Random House has been the exclusive trade
book publisher of Princeton Review Books since 1986 when the line
debuted with "Cracking the System: The SAT"-- the only
test-prep guide ever to become a New York
Times best seller. The Princeton Review Books line
(www.randomhouse.com/princetonreview) is part of the company's
Random House Children's Books division and numbers more than 150
titles. It includes guides to dozens of standardized tests,
colleges and graduate schools, and study aid books for pre-teens to
post-grads. Follow Penguin Random House on Facebook at
PenguinRandomHouse and Twitter @penguinrandom.
WEBSITE: www.princetonreview.com
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