Degreechoices.com has ranked UTRGV highly in several categories, including first among Texas public universities for best relative economic value.
Degreechoices.com has also ranked UTRGV third for best colleges in Texas and third in the nation for MSW programs. Additionally, the university ranks fifth for bachelor’s programs in criminal justice.
Overall, UTRGV ranks 15th in the nation (seventh among national public schools), just behind Rice.
The ranking for value is detailed in an article from Forbes listing the top colleges based on relative economic value.
UTRGV President Guy Bailey said rankings like these are valuable because they directly factor in economic value for students and their families.
“To be ranked in the top 15 with schools like MIT, Princeton, Stanford, Harvard and Yale is a tremendous accomplishment and further proof that UTRGV provides one of the best values in the state and country,” Bailey said. “UTRGV continues to provide students the opportunity to pursue their degrees with economic value in mind.”
The Top 25
Degreechoices.com ranks hundreds of colleges and universities in various categories, including best national universities, best colleges by region, and best majors and graduate programs. Listed are the top 25 national universities out of a total of 436. The online college guide bases rankings on relative financial value. These values were based on the economic return students could expect from attending their respective university or college.
According to Forbes, data calculations use public cost and earnings from the Department of Education’s College Scorecard and the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System. Supplementing the data is information from the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey. This allows Degreechoices.com to compute two metrics which, when combining, provides an institution’s total economic score.
To calculate an institution’s economic score, the school’s payback is divided by the percentage advantage and disadvantage of the “EarningsPlus” factor. EarningsPlus compares students’ earnings after attending college against a benchmark adjusted by Degreechoices.com based on two variables for salary comparisons.
These variables are each institution’s program ecology to highlight unique academia programs it offers and the in-state/out-state composition of the student body.