When it comes to return on investment (ROI) among Oregon colleges and universities, Oregon Institute of Technology ranked third, according to a special report by Bloomberg Businessweek.
Oregon Tech followed only University of Portland and Oregon State University for providing graduates the best return on the dollar for their education. Oregon Tech was ranked with 853 other institutions in the United States. Public universities had two ROI rankings, one for resident and one for non-resident tuition.
Bloomsberg Businessweek teamed with the Seattle-based compensation data company PayScale to measure the value of investing in a college degree. PayScale collected data on salaries reported by alumni earning bachelor’s degrees over a 30-year period and compared those earnings to high school graduates’ earnings. The dollar figure assigned to each of the 853 institutions examined – the ROI – represented the amount a college graduate could expect to earn over and above what a typical high school graduate earned during the same period, after deducting the cost of obtaining his or her degree.
According to the magazine’s ROI report, the net cost to graduate from Oregon Tech for students paying in-state tuition was $61,230 and the 30-year net ROI for graduates – taking financial aid into account – was $617,600. Oregon Tech also fared very well compared to other western states, with ROIs that ranked higher than all universities evaluated in Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, and Nevada, all but four universities in Washington, and higher than 23 of the 51 universities evaluated in California.
“In many respects, evaluating students’ ROI in their education is an outcome-based metric that reflects not only success of university alumni, but also reputation and relevance of the universities themselves and the courses that they offer,”said Oregon Tech president Chris Maples. “This is especially remarkable given that Oregon’s state support per full-time-equivalent student in higher education has declined to the point that we now rank third from last in the entire US.”
To view an interactive table of all 853 institutions evaluated in the “Best College ROI” report, go to: http://www.businessweek.com/interactive_reports/colleges_return_on_investment.html.
