The University of Vermont has been ranked among the top 10 schools in the country that are preparing students to land good jobs after graduation and without the burden of excessive loans.

UVM ranks ninth out of 1,182 schools, and is the only Vermont college or university ranked in the top 25, in the 2016 outcomes-based Educate to Career (ETC) College Rankings Index. The index is prepared by the California-based nonprofit organization Educate to Career Inc.

According to the nonprofit, the index uses a set of metrics to determine the economic value added by each school in the ranking pertaining to the “employability of graduates measured against the total cost of education.”

“Users of the index will recognize that schools providing a practical education for a reasonable tuition-rate are highly ranked,” said ETC president and founder Michael R. Havis. “Public, state colleges are particularly adept at graduating students who land good jobs, and are unburdened by excessive loan balances. In our view, this is how the college education system is supposed to function.”

Among the metrics used in the index are: the percentage of graduates employed in occupations which draw from their field of study; average salary earned by recent graduates; percentage of graduates employed within one year of graduation; in-state net tuition; and loan default rates.

The ranking follows three other recent rankings and scorecards focusing on affordability and value that are also favorable to UVM:

    •    Washington Monthly ranked the University of Vermont 15th among 402 colleges and universities in the Northeast on its "Best Bang for the Buck" list in the magazine’s annual College Guide issue, published in September. No other Vermont colleges were in the top 100.
    •    On the College Scorecard, released by the U.S. Department of Education, UVM is the only college or university in Vermont with an average cost for in-state students that is below the national average and a graduation rate and average after-graduation earnings that are above the national average.
    •    The university also ranks 59th on the New York Times' College Access Index, a measure of top colleges’ efforts to boost economic diversity at their institutions. UVM is among universities whose scores “indicate the most effort” toward making college accessible to economically disadvantaged students.

PUBLISHED

10-06-2015
University Communications