Brookings Institution Ranks Manhattan College Ninth for Value-Added Education
The report highlights Manhattan students’ return on investment.
New data and analysis of two- and four-year schools released by the Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program highlighted how well Manhattan College prepares students for successful careers.
Placed just ahead of Stanford, Manhattan ranks in the top ten with Cal Tech, Colgate, MIT, Rose-Hulman, Carleton College, Washington and Lee, SUNY Maritime and Clarkson.
Accounting for demographic and geographic characteristics, the report predicted mid-career graduates of Manhattan to earn an average annual salary of $72,701, whereas the actual average salary is $110,800, accounting for a 42% salary boost. The report notes that Manhattan places many graduates into top international companies like IBM, Google, JP Morgan and Wells Fargo.
According to Brookings, part of Manhattan’s added value as a liberal arts college comes from “unmeasured characteristics [that] amount to an ‘x factor.’ They may consist of things like administration or teaching quality, student ambition, or alumni networks.”
Manhattan College received a score of 99 out of 100 in value-added with respect to mid-career earnings of the typical graduate. Manhattan also scored a 98 in value added with respect to occupational earnings power of the typical graduate.
The Brookings report cites five college quality factors that seem to be key to how well students perform economically in the years after college: curriculum value, alumni skills, STEM orientation, completion rates and student aid.
Drawing on government and private sources, the report analyzes college “value-added,” the difference between actual alumni outcomes (like salaries) and the outcomes one would expect given a student’s characteristics and the type of institution. Value-added captures the benefits that accrue from aspects of college quality Brookings can measure, such as graduation rates and the market value of the skills a college teaches, as well as aspects Brookings can’t measure.
In March 2015, PayScale ranked Manhattan College 18th among private colleges in the nation for offering bachelor’s degrees with value, and 33rd overall among 1,223 private and public institutions.