Most of us are familiar with the college-university rankings published by Forbes and U.S. News and other journals. Here is a different approach to ranking these institutions, looking at them more from the students’ experiences and opportunities than to their SAT test scores and AP classes taken in high school. The author, journalist Iris Stone, divides them into the most affordable 25 public institutions and 25 private institutions. The results will surprise you.
Download the pdf here 50_Great_Affordable_Colleges_in_the_Northeast.
The best public universities include Towson University, the University of Delaware, Binghamton University, the University of Vermont, and several campuses that are part of the State University of New York and the City University of New York. The best public university, she concludes, is the City College of New York, which is the flagship campus of the City University of New York, which has a library of 1.5 million books, nearly 80 academic majors, more than 100 academic clubs, and a staggeringly low tuition of less than $6,000 per year.
The best private colleges and universities include such superstar institutions as Harvard University, MIT, Johns Hopkins University, Wellesley College, Princeton University, Dartmouth College, Columbia University, Haverford College, Williams College, Amherst College, and Yale University. No surprises there.
But here is the shocker: the best private institution, she decides, is St. Joseph’s College, which has campuses in Brooklyn, New York, and Patchogue, New York. With tuition under $14,000 a year, it is the least expensive of all the campuses on the list of private colleges and universities. Its retention rate is about 85%. She writes that “the more than 500 faculty members spend a lot of individual time with students and keep the student-faculty ratio down to only 11:1.” St. Joseph’s College has supplied a large number of the teachers and administrators for public schools in New York City and its suburbs. As it happens, I know this institution well. Its recently retired president, Sister Elizabeth Hill is a kind, humble, brilliant woman. SJC is noted for the compassion and kindness that it directs to its students. It is an institution that cares about each student as an individual.
Bigger and richer is not necessarily better.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Alas, universities like mine that have relatively open admission policies do not do well in rankings where student ACT scores, first year retention rates, six year graduation rate, and Forbes Rankings (which also include these factors all over again, so they are given extra hidden weight in this ranking) are used to judge the institution.
Folks might be interested in this university and college rating done by the federal government in 1911: http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/how-did-the-federal-government-rate-your-college-a-century-ago/83411
“The best public university, she concludes, is the City College of New York, which is the flagship campus of the City University of New York, which has a library of 1.5 million books, nearly 80 academic majors, more than 100 academic clubs, and a staggeringly low tuition of less than $6,000 per year.”
That’s right about what the University of Michigan’s in-state tuition was in 1988, adjusted for inflation. That’s something to ponder.
this needs to be posted
After taking Gates’ money, this is wrong.
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/education/michael-mulgrew-defends-common-core-punch-face-tools-article-1.1895301#YZX0mzzx6vFEYSJm.97
St. Joseph’s College is also the home to the Dillon Child Study Center, a preschool that–at least when I had a child enrolled there–was steadfast in emphasizing child-directed play as opposed to academics for its 3-5-year old-students. The motto of the place seemed to be “sharing is caring,” something, perhaps, that our elected officials might ponder from time to time. As for literacy skills, well, they read a lot of books, told stories, and used language in many creative ways. But nobody felt the children needed to learn how to read before they were ready.
My non profit ran a CS program for 9-12 graders this past summer and St. Joseph’s hosted us. All the other colleges/universities in the area were more than willing to charge us an arm and a leg for a little space.
St. Joseph’s saw that we were a good organization trying to do something special and welcomed us with open arms.
My staff repeatedly commented on how warm and friendly a campus it was.
And just a couple of years ago, I didn’t know they had a Brooklyn campus..
Truly a hidden gem.
One of my husband’s friends who is a physics professor and the parent of 4 high school students told us about this organization called colleges that change lives. (http://www.ctcl.org/)
Come to Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts (MCLA), and see what my city of North Adams has to offer. This is one of the BEST colleges in the nation, with a host of excellent community partnerships up here in the Berkshires. It is a state college; Massachusetts has always been a happening state with regard to primary, secondary, and higher education.
MCLA recently built a science center that is state-of-the-art and rivals anything an Ivy League school has.
This article seems to have triggered my anger about CCSS obsession with “college and career ready”:
But it’s not just CCSS, there seems to be an overall obsession on four year universities, which is delusional since 80% of jobs only require 2 two year degrees, and this trend is increasing. We have created an educational environment that causes young people to think they are inferior and ‘losers” unless they can attend a four year college and get a BS degree or higher. We have created an educational environment that causes the general public to think that anyone with a PhD after their name is automatically “superior” and “smarter”. That is far from reality!
In spite of the CCSS/TEKS obsession with kindergartners being “college and career ready” academically, we are neglecting the most important social and emotional developmental needs of young people to prepare them for college and work. Their future success will depend on their adaptability, not their test scores, and their adaptability will depend mostly on their social and emotional development.
Most high school graduates coming into Texas universities now are totally unprepared socially and emotionally for a university program, since they are still emotionally “children”. They are codependent. They have the same conditioned behaviors of the “adult children” syndrome that many of us recognize as the ACoA Trauma Syndrome. They have survived 12 years of a harsh authoritarian school environment that stifled and smothered their social and emotional development, and left them codependent.
Many of us call the schools of Texas a “smother mother”, which does the same emotional damage to a child as a “Narcissistic mother”. The Texas schools use a form of indoctrination as a substitute for authentic teaching. This punitive authoritarian pedagogy focuses obsessively on performance and data, while neglecting social and emotional needs, and creates winner/loser products. One only needs to look at the the burgeoning prison population and the soaring increase in children’s anxiety and depression to see the source of the problem. Unfortunately, our self absorbed and greedy politicians are wearing blinders and will not see the problem, since they were apparently “trophy children”, and perceive themselves as superior and entitled.
This educational trend of college for everyone is delusional based on the individual states’ college completion statistics. For example, in Texas, 50% of college kids drop out and never complete a degree. Too many graduating seniors are now steered into college programs that are not of their choosing, but to make their parents or teachers happy, or because their high school degree plan put them on a path they obediently followed without question, and without having adequate preparation for a college major. Graduating seniors in Texas do not have adequate social and emotional development (maturity) as preparation for college, since their entire 12 years of education was focused on taking tests and doing what they were told. They are not able to use scientific thinking or higher thinking skills to function independently and make life decisions. They are good at performing tasks and doing what they are told, but they are like boats afloat without a rudder. They can’t steer themselves. Texas schools teach CODEPENDENCY, and so do most other schools in the US now that CCSS is bringing this same pedagogy to the forefront with “obedience training” rather than “authentic teaching.
We need to provide children and young adults with education that provides for their social and emotional needs and gives them a strong sense of “self” and identity, so they can function independently with success. We need to get off our high horse of “college and career ready” that is destroying too many young lives by causing codependency, which leads to workaholism and alcoholism, and a life of misery.
In this educational nightmare we have created with CCSS, most children perceive themselves as “losers”. What do you think that will do for our future and theirs?
What do you think that will do for our future and theirs?
I think CCSS will create a culture of robots. People who perform well i their work and can follow orders, but cannot make emotional attachments socially and emotionally, and therefore continued destruction of the family system.
I agree that Common Core is creating a culture of conformity and codependence. Good little robots who go to college and do as they are told, then get a job and do as they are told. Many of them are now still living at home into their 30’s. They will be content sitting in their little cubicle at work starring at a computer screen for the rest of their life and following commands.
I think codependency that CCSS is creating for children will bring about a culture of “servitude”, and workaholism, which is already on the increase. CCSS is conditioning children to become indentured servants, only their servitude is a life sentence.
College programs are being watered down to include more remediation and rehab for incoming students who are socially and emotionally delayed.
College should be opportunity for students who are socially and emotionally prepared and intrinsically motivated, not a carrot on a stick for children who have had their most basic needs neglected.
Reblogged this on National Mobilization For Equity and commented:
This certainly goes to NME’s parent/student conversation project ~ still in planning/ Supporting organizations are reviewing preliminary brochure/flier for parents and prospective student for additions and final edits before releasing.
Izzy, I couldn’t agree with you more. Eliminating Industrial Arts, Home Economics, and career classes in my school system has been a detriment to our students. Everyone is not meant to get a Bachelor’s degree. The emotional development of our kids should be the most important thing to all educators. Besides, my nephew, who is an accomplished truck mechanic is almost making as much money as I make. He has an Associate’s degree and I have a Master’s degree. The Common Core standards will be a disaster. We have already been told at workshops that our passage rate (in Ohio) will drop to a 34%. Imagine how badly everyone will feel. This is the goal of the deformers – to show how behind our kids are and to point at all us incompetent teachers who need fired. Honestly, I can’t believe the state of our professions. I am relieved to not have many years of teaching left. Your blog was informational, and I agree with you.
I have participated in the ACLU “pipeline to prison” program in Texas, and we see the school system as contributing to the increase in juvenile incarceration, mental illness, domestic violence, teen suicide, and a growing prison population.
We can always expect to have dysfunction in society, but the schools should buffer environmental social stress by being safe havens for children, not places of punishment that bully children with fear and intimidation and add to their stress.
Our politicians are indeed delusional when they cannot connect the dots between the punitive school environment and the scary increase in these statistics for children and young people.
College is the least of their worries! How can they be expected to focus on college when they can’t see any light at the end of their tunnel.
Oh my gosh, I couldn’t have said it better! As an educator almost to the end of her career, I am having a very hard time observing all of this. I think the only thing saving my sanity is that I am a Christian, and I am positive that we are in end times. Everything is becoming so out of control and lacks any common sense. Our Founding Fathers would roll over in their graves. This is not what they intended for the United States of America.
That’s wonderful. Congratulations to the hard working faculty, staff and leadership of St. Joseph’s College to achieve this distinction. Great news.
The actual full tuition without fees at St. Joseph’s College is $21,250. You may be referring to an average tuition that includes athletic scholarships. The average tuition at Dowling College, a neighboring college, is $16,500 including athletic and academic scholarships. Both of these schools offer excellent opportunities for students to excel in many programs.
Robert Manley, the survey was based on more than tuition. St. Joseph College ended up as number one because of the individualization and personalization of services to students, as compared to other colleges and universities in the region. I personally had no involvement in the survey, nor do I know the person or persons who conducted it. I reported its findings. All such rankings involve a degree of subjectivity.