8-29-2024 4:35am

TOWSON LISTED AS

America’s Best Bang for the Buck Colleges

Our one-of-a-kind list of schools that help non-wealthy students attain marketable degrees at affordable prices.

by Robert Kelchen, washingtonmonthly.com

So-called elite colleges and universities have been under the microscope for the last few years, and that has only intensified since campus protests at the onset of the war between Israel and Hamas garnered national attention. These institutions have been the subject of congressional hearings and constant media coverage, and they are unlikely to escape public scrutiny anytime soon.

But here at the Monthly, we aren’t laser focused on the Columbias and Harvards of the world, which serve a privileged few, but on the much broader group of colleges where the vast majority of students get their educations—and on how well all of them advance social mobility. After all, colleges receive hundreds of billions of dollars each year in subsidies from federal, state, and local government in addition to the tuition they charge. So students and taxpayers have a right to know how well those schools are fulfilling their mandate to make the American dream possible.

In that spirit, we present our annual list of Best Bang for the Buck colleges in 2024—schools that do a good job helping students of modest means earn reasonably priced degrees that help them get economically ahead in life. The rankings are broken down by region. (We used the same data and methodology to create the social mobility portion of the main rankings; the methodology is explained here.)

No university in America was more heavily criticized this year than Columbia for coming down too hard—or not hard enough—on the Gaza protesters and for being too wishy-washy—or too doctrinaire—in defending free speech. But let us offer a rare good word for the Morningside Heights institution: It does right by its non-wealthy students. Columbia undergrads from families earning less than $75,000 annually pay only $3,061 a year to attend (including living expenses) and are making $89,697 in annual income nine years after entering the university. Columbia clocks in at number four on our Best Bang for the Buck Northeast FINISH READING HERE