Tennessee's Best Value Colleges 2017 (Memphis, Knoxville: loans, transfer, public schools)

[JMT]

From the people at smartasset.com

rank...school...location...public/private...national rank

1. Vanderbilt...Nashville...private...54
2. Tennessee Tech...Cookeville...public...105
3. Christian Brothers...Memphis...private...198
4. University of Tennessee...Knoxville...public...267
5. University of Memphis...Memphis...public...335
6. Trevecca Nazarene...Nashville...private...344
7. Tennessee State...Nashville...public...368
8. University of Tennessee...Martin...public...419
9. Carson-Newman...Jefferson City...private...420
10. Middle Tennessee State...Murfreesboro...public...449

Their methodology:

To capture the true cost of attending a school, we included the tuition (using in-state tuition for public schools where applicable), student living costs (including room and board, books, supplies, transportation and other personal expenses) and the average scholarships and grants offered to students of the school.

To capture what students get in return, we looked at student retention rate (the percent of students that re-enrolled at the institution the following year) and the average starting salary.

We gave 25% weighting to starting salary, tuition, and living costs; and 12.5% weighting to scholarships & grants and student retention rate to come up with a ranking of schools in our analysis. With that ranking, we created an index (a sort of grading on a curve) where the number one school was assigned 100.

https://smartasset.com/student-loans...2017#tennessee

[Xelfer]

Originally Posted by JMT

From the people at smartasset.com

rank...school...location...public/private...national rank

1. Vanderbilt...Nashville...private...54
2. Tennessee Tech...Cookeville...public...105
3. Christian Brothers...Memphis...private...198
4. University of Tennessee...Knoxville...public...267
5. University of Memphis...Memphis...public...335
6. Trevecca Nazarene...Nashville...private...344
7. Tennessee State...Nashville...public...368
8. University of Tennessee...Martin...public...419
9. Carson-Newman...Jefferson City...private...420
10. Middle Tennessee State...Murfreesboro...public...449

Their methodology:

To capture the true cost of attending a school, we included the tuition (using in-state tuition for public schools where applicable), student living costs (including room and board, books, supplies, transportation and other personal expenses) and the average scholarships and grants offered to students of the school.

To capture what students get in return, we looked at student retention rate (the percent of students that re-enrolled at the institution the following year) and the average starting salary.

We gave 25% weighting to starting salary, tuition, and living costs; and 12.5% weighting to scholarships & grants and student retention rate to come up with a ranking of schools in our analysis. With that ranking, we created an index (a sort of grading on a curve) where the number one school was assigned 100.

https://smartasset.com/student-loans...2017#tennessee

What this article fails to mention is the value that can be derived from Tennessee's community college system, especially when used to complete prerequisite classes that can be transferred to the 4-year school. Obviously each school will have stronger programs than others (MTSU: nursing, and so on)—so the school is really only a value when a student chooses something that is 1) marketable and 2) the student actually completes the degree and is a competitive candidate in their chosen field. A school that offers esoteric degrees is not going to be a value no matter how many students it graduates nor how cheaply.