The Worst Schools in the U.S. Part 3

May 29, 2023

“Everybody wants to go to an ivy league school but that doesn’t mean everybody gets to. It also doesn’t mean that everyone there deserves to be there, but that’s a different story.

Anyway, the point is that people often find themselves attending colleges that are a far cry from their plan A. Generally speaking, there’s nothing wrong with that, but if you’re looking for a fallback option, try to steer clear of the institutions in this article (or the ones in the first two articles we’ve published on the subject.“


https://www.history-a2z.com/the-worst-schools-in-the-u-s-youve-been-warned-part3

 

I am a little put off by that article. They assess quality based on the percentage of defaults and the graduation rate but neither actually measures quality. A very good school who admits unprepared students would have a lower graduation rate than a terrible school with terrible standards who just pushes everyone to graduate. The percentage of defaults seems in many cases to be more related to the levels of poverty in those states. Alaska, New Mexico, Kansas, Arkansas, Kentucky, Alabama all struggle with poverty and their graduates may struggle to find jobs that can pay back those loans regardless of the quality of the education they received.

 

This list is goofy, but not because they mostly focused on graduation rate. I think we should look at the cost of tuition and graduation rate because schools with high tuition and low graduation rates are often predatory or simply don't care to provide the extra services their students need.

This list is goofy because it includes institutions that closed years ago, it included UC Santa Barbara because of crime, and it included a school because it has a 60% graduation rate.

 

My recommendation for schools with low tuition but high student loan default rates is to provide career counseling to all new students. Economically disadvantaged students tend to gravitate toward majors that are in low demand and have low average salaries. Some of it has to do with poor math and science preparation in high school.