WCU rated No. 21 as public college value

Posted by Press Release on April 26, 2015

West Chester University has been ranked No. 21 on a list of top values in public colleges, according to rankings from Consumer Digest published in the magazine’s June 2015 issue, a university press release said.

The magazine used data from College Board and the Department of Education’s College Navigator to determine the top 227 public institutions. The formula they used to narrow the field further “balanced students’ academic excellence (standardized test scores, high-school rank, and the GPA of entering freshmen) with the quality of education offered (as indicated by the student-to-faculty ratio, the four-year graduation rate, the six-year graduation rate, student retention rate, and percentage of faculty who hold a doctorate or terminal degree) to compile a Value Index score for each institution, the release said.

Certain categories were weighted more heavily than others. That score and the estimated cost of attending each college for the 2014-2015 academic year (tuition, fees, and room and board) were then applied to a formula to determine which schools deliver the most academic value per dollar.

Consumer Digest also only used out-of-state tuition figures for public universities, “because attending a public school in your state of residence will almost always provide the best value for your education dollar. Military institutions and extremely specialized colleges that don’t charge tuition weren’t considered for this chart,” the release said.

The only other Pennsylvania universities listed in the top 50 values for public institutions were University of Pittsburgh at No. 37 and Penn State, University Park, at No. 45, the release said.