Anonymous wrote:People might be misinterpreting these results. As I understand it, the ranking shows which schools produce the biggest bang (outcomes) for the buck (cost minus aid), essentially a ROI, with a few other measures too (30%). So, if the average cost to attend is high, even good outcomes are significantly offset. On the other hand, if the average cost to attend is low, just a better-than-average outcome would rank the school highly. So, it’s the balance of the two that gets a school highly ranked.
This is the way I read it as well. I have kids at two of the schools, and the normally much higher-ranked one is ranked well below the other school. But the WSJ lower-ranked school is much more expensive. At least initially, the kid going there will make much less money than the one at the better-ranked (by WSJ) university, at least initially.