President Barack Obama’s plan to create federal rating systems for colleges was not accepted by the higher education industry, which led to a renewed version of his vision: the College Scorecard. The College Scorecard will inform future college students and families about each college’s graduation rate, post-college earnings, student debt levels and how they can repay their loans.
“As a student, I like Obama’s new idea to rank colleges,” said Leah Merrall, a journalism sophomore at the UA. “To be able to approach looking at college rankings based on finances and academic success can benefit a lot of students considering where to apply or attend. I think that the [UA] is pretty financially accommodating.”
According to BuzzFeed News, Princeton, Harvard and Yale are at the top of the list because of their prestige, low acceptance rates and large spending on academics.
In addition to the scorecard, 11 organizations will launch services that pull data and propel a market for new college search tools, lifting Americans in the middle class through better educational choices.
Obama first announced the idea in 2013, saying he thought the College Scorecard would be revolutionary by evaluating schools based on how much graduates earned after attending and how many financially unstable students applied. According to Obama, universities that do well with this new ranking will be granted financial awards.
“As an in-state student, I save a lot of money by going here,” Merrall said. “A lot of my out of state friends get great financial aid as well and sometimes go here for less than they would if they went in their own state. I think this new ranking system [will] benefit the UA.”
Obama said in his weekly address that “Americans will now have access to reliable data on every institution of higher education.”
He said he believes that taxpayers shouldn’t subsidize students to attend college if they aren’t graduating.
According to The New York Times, many presidents at private schools are against the government ranking system and they say it will force students to declare money-making majors, such as accounting, rather than philosophy or English.
Students can use College Scorecard’s website to search for universities with low tuition costs, high graduation rates and for their post-college salaries.
“I support [Obama’s] new program that he has launched through the [U.S.] Department of Education,” said Joseline Mata, president of the UA Young Democrats. “I believe it is important for students to have accurate information and that is being provided through the College Scorecard website.”
Mata said she believes the results will be favorable for the UA, citing that according to the College Scorecard website, UA is below the national average in terms of cost.
Obama stated in his weekly address that Americans will be able to see how much each school’s graduates earn, how much debt they graduated with and what percentage of students can pay back their loans.
