THE COLLEGE SCORECARD

I know your head is spinning from all the college ranking and evaluation tools that are mailed and emailed to you! The newest college scorecard talked about by President Obama in his state of the union address has some valuable information if you take the time to really evaluate the findings.

One of the most misleading bits of information in higher education is the 6 year graduation rate. This tracks every student who enrolls at a particular insitution and penalizes the institution if that students decides to leave for any reason, relocation, health, wrong fit, family changes, cost, vocation focus change, etc. It leads the consumer to believe that somehow the instituion has failed because the student decided to leave. A much more important quesiton for families to be asking is what is the 4 year degree completion rate of students who remain at the institution. Here at Jacksonville University we are proud to state that of our graduates who walk across the stage each May that 95% completed their degrees in 4 years or less.

As individuals are more price concious about education today it is important to understanding the value of graduating in 4 years. Another imported tant aspect of the scorecard is the "net price" line which shows you what the actual cost is students are paying on average after factoring in scholarships and financial aid. What you find is that in most cases the "sticker price" is deceiving and institutions like Jacksonville University might cost no more than a state school in your area.

Check out the college indebtedness numbers and you will once again see that a private college like JU has a very average indebtedness compared to many other institutions you are considering. Then what does a low default rate tell you? It tells you that in the case of JU our graduates are gaining employment that allows them to repay their student loan debt, and that the default rate of JU graduates is 3.7%, well below the national average of over 13%.

What the college scorecard does more than anything is to highlight some very important factors that should be considered when selected a college. The value statements are there and a college investment demands that students and families consider the long term return on that investment.

The questions students and families should be asking are:

Will I graduate in 4 years? At JU 90% of our graduates complete their degree in 4 years or less.

Will I find a job or be accepted to graduate school? At JU 95% of our graduates 6 months after graduation have a job or are in graduate school.

Will I be able to repay any student loan debt I have accumulated? JU graduates have one of the lowest default rates of any school in the country.

In addition the average student loan debt of our graduates is below the national average.

As you search for colleges I ask that you look deeper than the initial sticker price and I believe what you will find at Jacksonville University is a return on investment that provides true value!