A New Approach to Ranking Virginia Colleges

WASHINGTON It's August and nearly time for colleges and universities to begin another academic year. It is therefore time to ask: How does higher education stack up in Virginia compared with other states in terms of the quality of the education experience and the value imparted to the consumers of college services? And, within the state, which schools excel and which give good value?

Forbes has just released its rankings of 600 American colleges and universities, with 20 of them in Virginia. Compiled by the Center for College Affordability and Productivity, the rankings are determined by the answers to five questions:

• How well do students like their courses? (25 percent weight)

• How well do students do occupationally after graduation? (25 percent)

• Do they incur a lot of debt in getting their degree? (20 percent)

• Do they graduate in four years, and does their college do a good job of getting students through, given characteristics of the school and its students? (16 2/3 percent)

• Finally, do students and faculty fare well in national and international competitions for academic awards like Rhodes Scholarships or Nobel Prizes? (13 1/3 percent)

Data come from private Web sites (ratemyprofessor.com, payscale.com), reference works (Who's Who in America), and government-required data provided the U.S. Department of Education. For more details, go to www.forbes.com or to www.centerforcollegeaffordability.org.

IN VIRGINIA, the top public colleges are very competitive with the private ones. Of the top six colleges in Virginia, half are public and half are private, with the top spot going to the private Washington and Lee University; however, four of the top 10 colleges in Virginia are public. Overall, students are more satisfied with the instruction in their course in Virginia's private colleges than its public ones. In fact, this is why the top three public schools -- despite award-winning faculty and good track records of timely graduation -- failed to overtake the private ones. Only one public college -- Virginia Military Institute at No. 9 -- made the top 10 in course satisfaction among Virginia's ranked schools, with the bottom nine spots occupied by public schools.

Virginia has two schools in the top 50 nationally -- Washington and Lee University (34) and the College of William and Mary (48), and seven in the top 100, including Hampden-Sydney College (54), University of Virginia (64), Sweet Briar College (69), Virginia Military Institute (79), and Hollins University (95). Arguably, Virginia, along with California, has the best public institutions in the country, with William and Mary surpassing all other state universities in the nation, a remarkable achievement.

Virginia performs extremely well when compared to the neighboring states of West Virginia, North Carolina, Maryland, and Washington, D.C. Three of the top four schools in the region are in Virginia, with only the United States Naval Academy in Maryland (which is truly a national institution) outside the state. When compared among the 12 schools comprising the ACC Conference, the University of Virginia ranks second, trailing only Boston College, with Virginia Tech coming in at No. 7.

WE ALSO computed the nation's 100 Best Buy schools, where we related quality of the institution to the net tuition paid by the average student (net tuition is tuition after institutional scholarship grants). Virginia had six colleges make the Best Buy list, including UVa (19), VMI (21), William and Mary (33), Virginia Tech (53), University of Mary Washington (58), and Randolph College (60). Of these schools, all but Randolph College are public.

If you don't like the criteria used to determine quality, or would prefer to emphasize factors differently, the Forbes.com Web site allows you to do a customized rating with other variables available (e.g., campus crime rates). Doing things the way described here, Virginia's colleges are above average in terms of quality and value, but still have a ways to go before being able to claim a top-notch higher education system.

Peter Neiger is a research associate, and Daniel L. Bennett is the administrative director, at The Center for College Affordability and Productivity. Contact them at pneiger@centerforcollegeaffordability.org and dbennett@centerforcollegeaffordability.org.