Woodbury Ranks in Top 4 Percent in The Economist’s First-Ever Survey of American Colleges

Nov. 2, 2015 - PRLog -- LOS ANGELES, Calif. (November 02, 2015) –In The Economist’s first-ever survey of American higher education, Woodbury University (http://www.woodbury.edu) ranks 34^th among 1,275 four-year institutions, placing it in the top 4 percent of college and universities nationwide (http://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2015/10/value-university), the university announced today.  Woodbury’s ranking is the fifth highest of any college or university in California.

“The Economist’s first-ever college rankings (http://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21677231-new-federal-data-reveal-which-colleges-do-most-their-graduates-pay-packets-they-are) are based on a simple premise: the economic value of a university is equal to the gap between how much money its graduates earn, and how much they might have made had they studied elsewhere,”the publication writes.The Economist’s statistical software produced an estimate for each college based exclusively on factors related to how much money its alumni would make.  Those factors included average SAT (https://sat.collegeboard.org/) scores, sex ratio, race breakdown, college size, whether a university was public or private, and the mix of subjects students chose to study. Included in the rankings are 1,275 four-year, non-vocational colleges.

The rankings chart the median graduate salary predicted for each college, its actual median earnings, and its over- or under-performance. As Business Insider reported, “the economists at The Economist hoped to determine which schools actually gave their alumni an earnings boost over what those schools' attendees would be expected to make had they finished college elsewhere.”  At Woodbury, expected earnings were estimated at $38,142 and median earnings at $45,600.

“The rankings from The Economist affirm the value proposition that we have offered for decades,” said David Dauwalder, PhD., Interim President, Woodbury University.  “We take students from diverse academic and socioeconomic backgrounds and transform them into citizens and professionals who can thrive and be competitive in almost any environment.  This recognition does not happen by accident.  The faculty and staff of Woodbury University are to be commended for working together to deliver our value proposition to our students.  And The Economist is to be commended for its thorough, real-world analysis of the impact of college on the working lives of graduates.”

The Economist complemented its core data with information from other sources: whether a college is affiliated with the Catholic Church (http://www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/how-we-teach/c...) or a Protestant Christian denomination (https://www.cccu.org/members_and_affiliates); the wealth of its state (https://bber.unm.edu/econ/st-gdp5.htm) (using a weighted average of Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia for Washington) and prevailing wages in its city (http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oessrcma.htm) (with a flat value for colleges in rural areas); whether it has a ranked undergraduate business school (http://www.bloomberg.com/bw/articles/2014-04-04/the-complete-ranking-best-undergraduate-business-schools-2014) (and is thus likely to attract business-minded students); the percentage of its students who receive federal Pell grants (http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-universities/economic-diversity) given to working-class students (a measure of family income); and whether it is a liberal-arts college (http://www.liberalarts.org/).

In 2014, Money Magazine ranked Woodbury University (http://www.woodbury.edu) 15^th among the nation’s “25 Colleges That Add the Most Value.”

About Woodbury University

Founded in 1884, Woodbury University is one of the oldest institutions of higher education in Southern California.  With campuses in Burbank/Los Angeles and San Diego, the university offers bachelor's degrees from the School of Architecture, School of Business, School of Media, Culture & Design, and College of Transdisciplinarity, along with a Master of Business Administration, Master of Arts in Media for Social Justice, Master of Architecture (MArch), Master of Interior Architecture (MIA), Master of Science in Architecture (MSArch), and Master of Leadership.  The San Diego campus offers Bachelor of Architecture and Master of Architecture, Master of Leadership, Master of Interior Architecture and Master of Landscape Architecture degrees, as well as an MSArch degree with a concentration in Real Estate Development.  In 2014, Woodbury ranked 15th among the nation’s “25 Colleges That Add the Most Value,” according to Money Magazine and is a 2014-2015 College of Distinction.  Visit woodbury.edu (http://www.woodbury.edu/) for more information.

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