U. neutral on Dept. of Education’s college affordability ranking tool

The tool, called College Scorecard, provides data on the costs of attending different colleges and universities, average graduation rates, student loan repayment rate, average amount of debt after graduation and employment status of recent alumni.

“Today I’m also calling for a new report card on colleges,” Obama said in the Jan. 27 speech at the University of Michigan during which he announced the initiative. “From now on, parents and students deserve to know how a college is doing. How affordable is it? How well are its students doing? We want you to know how well a car stacks up before you buy it. You should know how well a college stacks up.”

Princeton’s official position on the new initiative is similar to its views on college rankings, such as those conducted by US News & World Report or the Forbes magazine; students and families should not rely on formulas or rankings in making their college choice, according to University Spokesperson Martin Mbugua.

“We appreciate the goals of this initiative, though our position is that no single formulaic system can provide an accurate reflection of what individual institutions offer students,” Mbugua said in an email. “We encourage students to explore the many outstanding educational opportunities available to them to identify their best match.”

The new tool will be administered by the College Affordability and Transparency Center, a division of the Department of Education that is responsible for providing information on tuition and net prices of various institutions.

The College Scorecard is currently in a draft phase, and the White House is currently soliciting feedback on how to improve the tool on its website. The website asks users to provide input on what they think are some of the most critical factors students and families consider when choosing a college and asks for suggestions on how the tool should go about generating groupings of colleges that serve similar students.

Mbugua added that the University already publishes most of the information that the scorecard would be presenting. For example, the Office of Career Services publishes an annual survey report detailing students’ post-graduate activities, including statistics on full-time employment, graduate school enrollment and starting salaries.

For the Class of 2010, the last class year for which data is available, 33.9 percent of students were employed full-time, 23.8 percent were seeking employment, 20.2 percent were enrolled in graduate or professional school and 9.7 percent had a year-long internship.

In addition, Mbugua said that the University’s financial aid calculator helps students who are worried about financing a Princeton education know what to expect.

The announcement of the new initiative came after Obama indicated in his State of the Union address that he would make access to and affordability of higher education a priority this year.

“The bottom line is that an economy built to last demands we keep doing everything we can to bring down the cost of college,” Obama said.