BYU and the U.S. Naval Academy currently hold the top spot in The Wall Street Journal’s list of colleges across the country that are “worth the cost,” according to data collected by the Wall Street Journal and Times Higher Education. The data was released in an article by The Wall Street Journal on Sept. 5.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the data was collected over a two-year period from students’ survey results. Students ranked their institutions on whether or not they think their experience will be worth the cost and explicated this on a 10-point scale.
BYU tied with the U.S. Naval Academy with a rank of 9.6 out of 10. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, ranked in the top five, scored 9.2. The Virginia Military Institute received 9, followed closely by Princeton at 8.9.
According to Todd Bronson, a chemistry professor at BYU, one of the benefits of BYU having lower tuition, compared to other schools, is that more students have the opportunity to graduate debt-free.
“(Other colleges’) tendency is to leave (students) with a lot of debt — much more than they can afford,” Bronson said. “I don’t think the education is that different, but leaving without student debt would be the biggest thing you can hope for.”
Nathan Johnson, a senior at BYU, said he believes BYU’s low cost coupled with the university’s overall experience makes the school well worth it. “Considering the facilities, quality of instruction, community and the pretty (low) subsidized cost that we get, I think that it’s a very good value,” he said.
