In a tightening labor market and with the costs of undergraduate college degrees skyrocketing, college-bound high school students may ask whether a top-tier college degree is worth the top-tier price tag. As the deadline for early-decision application looms, WalletHub.com today (October 18, 2021) released its 2022 Best College & University Rankings report. The personal finance website compared more than 1,000 schools to help high school students find “the top-performing schools and the lowest possible costs.” Schools across the country were measured on 30 performance indicators important to undergraduates such as cost, campus experience, education and career outcomes, faculty resources, and more.
The website hopes the report will help students make more informed decisions about how much a college degree is worth to them. For some, an Ivy League education is completely worth the (much) higher cost. For others, a community college will provide training and the quickest possible entry point to a high-demand and lucrative job.
‘STUDENTS SHOULD FIRST & FOREMOST PURSUE THEIR BLISS’
Students, first and foremost, need to identify what they want out of their education, says Crystal Chambers, professor in educational leadership at East Carolina University.
“I believe students should first and foremost pursue their bliss. If they develop excellence within an area that is remunerated in society, they will earn both the extrinsic rewards of a decent salary as well as the intrinsic rewards of a job well done,” Chambers says in the report.
“Students should also study the market – what are the up and coming fields and how do their interests align with those?”
Poets&Quants looked at the top 50 schools in WalletHub’s report and how they compared to each other on a variety of metrics most important to students. The first 25 are ranked below, and you can click through to the next pages to see more comparisons.