What's the Real Payoff?

Chronicle:

"Smart Money magazine decided to rate a limited sampling of 50 colleges based on what it calculates as the ratio between the cost of attending the institution and the average salary earned by a graduate. The results, SmartMoney says, are “pretty jarring,” often showing public colleges as giving students a much better long-term bang for the buck than their better-known private counterparts.

Among the findings, according to SmartMoney, is that the University of Georgia delivers a “payback” nearly three times that of Harvard University, and that the Universities of Delaware and of Rhode Island both outperform every Ivy League institution in the ranking."

Not a surprise to anyone who has experience with higher ed, and also not likely to significantly influence perceptions of true value in higher education.