Schools like Harvard, Yale and Stanford may seem out of reach for low-income students. But according to a list generated by the federal government’s new College Scorecard, those top-flight schools are among the most affordable in the nation. The list also shows that students at schools on the list earn extremely well ten years after graduation.
The College Scorecard, released on Saturday, cross-references data on students receiving federal financial aid with income data from the Internal Revenue Service. It includes information for more than 3,500 post-secondary schools. Families interested in a particular school can search by name and find a trove of information about students receiving federal aid, including average annual cost, graduation rates, income 10 years after grads enrolled in school, the racial composition of the student body, SAT and ACT scores of those attending, and the breakdown of academic programs that students pursue.
Homeroom, a blog put out by the Department of Education, compiled several helpful lists for students shopping for colleges. One of them, entitled “23 four-year schools with low costs that lead to high incomes,” includes nearly two dozen schools that are very affordable for low-income families, where most graduates earn quite well. The government didn’t rank the list but rather listed the schools in alphabetical order. I’m including the list below.
Several of the schools on the list offer even better deals for students than the numbers on the list imply. For instance, Harvard is a “no loan,” school, meaning that it sees to it that no student needs to take out a loan to attend. With its $36 billion endowment, the largest of any college in the nation, Harvard can afford to cover the $60,000 sticker price for any family whose household income is $65,000 or below. The $3,386 federal loan figure on the Scorecard is for expenses other than direct costs at the university. According to the Scorecard, only 3% of Harvard students receive federal aid. Among that group, the median income 10 years after enrollment is $87,200. More than 65% of Harvard students receive some financial aid.
Rice University in Houston is also one of the nation’s most affordable private colleges. Students from families where the household income is $80,000 or below are not required to take out loans. Rice’s sticker price of just under $56,000 for 2015-16 is at least $5,000 lower than most elite four-year private research universities. For students with demonstrated financial need, Rice also has a $10,000 cap on required loans for students over four years. Rice’s low cost and its aid program are impressive, given that its endowment, at $5.53 billion as of June 30, 2014, is a fraction of Harvard’s. Ten years after starting school, students who received federal financial aid as undergraduates average a median income of $59,900.
One other note about the Scorecard: It does not include four of the five U.S. military academies—the U.S. Military Academy (West Point), the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, the U.S. Naval Academy, and the U.S. Air Force Academy—where tuition, room and board are all free. Graduates pay a price through their service obligation, which starts at a minimum of five years. West Point requires five years of active duty and three years in the reserves. But graduates of those schools tend to do quite well in the private sector and the military academies rank well on Forbes’ annual list of top colleges, with West Point taking the 11th slot this year.
See also: The Government’s Great New Resource For Everyone Picking A College
See also: Low-Cost Colleges With Top Graduation Rates
See also: Public Colleges With Top Graduation Rates Whose Grads Earn The Most
