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Ididio Explores

A dozen colleges with top alumni outcomes with less-than-top selectivity

Almost all of the colleges and universities that report the highest measurable results for their alumni started with the top high school students: here are the exceptions.

You don’t always need the best grades to get into the best schools

These are the colleges and universities that scored in the top 10% of 1750 bachelor’s-offering schools in the United States on these measures:

Eight-year graduation rate (The percentage of all students (including part-time and transfer-in students) who leave with a degree within 8 years.)
Seven-year federal loan repayment rate (The percentage of students whose earnings allowed them to reduce the principal on their student loans within seven years of departing school.)

and also scored in the lower 90% of our selectivity rating, which is a mix of a college’s acceptance rate with its students’ incoming scores and grades.

Now, starting from the smallest of the schools:

A dozen colleges offering top outcomes without top admissions

Saint Anthony College of Nursing

Founded in 1915, Saint Anthony College of Nursing is located in the midsized city of Rockford IL.

Number of undergraduate students: 272
Institutional control: Private not-for-profit
Percentage graduating within 8 years: 89%
Percentage making progress repaying federal student loans within 7 years: 90%
Largest number of bachelor completions: Healthcare

Upstate Medical University

Founded in 1950, Upstate Medical University is located in the midsized of Syracuse, NY.

Number of undergraduate students: 305
Institutional control: Public
Percentage graduating within 8 years: 90%
Percentage making progress repaying federal student loans within 7 years: 92%
Largest number of bachelor completions: Health Support

SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University

Founded in 1858, SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University is located in the large city of Brooklyn in the New York-Newark-Jersey City NY-NJ-PA area

Number of undergraduate students: 349
Institutional control: Public
Percentage graduating within 8 years: 95%
Percentage making progress repaying federal student loans within 7 years: 93%
Largest number of bachelor completions: Healthcare

University of Nebraska Medical Center

Founded in 1869, University of Nebraska Medical Center is located in the large city of Omaha in the Omaha-Council Bluffs NE-IA area.

Number of undergraduate students: 1,046
Institutional control: Public
Percentage graduating within 8 years: 94%
Percentage making progress repaying federal student loans within 7 years: 94%
Largest number of bachelor completions: Healthcare

Samuel Merritt University

Founded in 1909, Samuel Merritt University is located in the large city of Oakland in the San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley CA area.

Number of undergraduate students: 1,100
Institutional control: Private not-for-profit
Percentage graduating within 8 years: 98%
Percentage making progress repaying federal student loans within 7 years: 95%
Largest number of bachelor completions: Healthcare

College of Saint Benedict

Founded in 1913, College of Saint Benedict is in the midsized suburb of Saint Joseph in the St. Cloud Minnesota area.

Number of undergraduate students: 1,813
Institutional control: Private not-for-profit
Percentage graduating within 8 years: 83%
Percentage making progress repaying federal student loans within 7 years: 96%
Largest number of bachelor completions: Healthcare

DePauw University

Founded in 1837, DePauw University is in the town of Greencastle which is a few miles outside of the Indianapolis-Carmel-Anderson IN area.

Number of undergraduate students: 2,175
Institutional control: Private not-for-profit
Percentage graduating within 8 years: 86%
Percentage making progress repaying federal student loans within 7 years: 92%
Largest number of bachelor completions: Humanities

Wheaton College

Founded in 1860, Wheaton College is in a large suburb of the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin IL-IN-WI area.

Number of undergraduate students: 2,498
Institutional control: Private not-for-profit
Percentage graduating within 8 years: 91%
Percentage making progress repaying federal student loans within 7 years: 98%
Largest number of bachelor completions: Humanities

Furman University

Founded in 1826, Furman University is in a large suburb within the Greenville-Anderson SC area.

Number of undergraduate students: 2,828
Institutional control: Private not-for-profit
Percentage graduating within 8 years: 83%
Percentage making progress repaying federal student loans within 7 years: 94%
Largest number of bachelor completions: Humanities

MCPHS University

Founded in 1823, MCPHS University is located in the large city of Boston, Massachusetts.

Number of undergraduate students: 4,330
Institutional control: Private not-for-profit
Percentage graduating within 8 years: 84%
Percentage making progress repaying federal student loans within 7 years: 91%
Largest number of bachelor completions: Healthcare

Providence College

Founded in 1917, Providence College is located in the midsized city of Providence in the Providence-Warwick RI-MA area.

Number of undergraduate students: 4,604
Institutional control: Private not-for-profit
Percentage graduating within 8 years: 83%
Percentage making progress repaying federal student loans within 7 years: 91%
Largest number of bachelor completions: Quantitative/Technology

Gonzaga University

Founded in 1887, Gonzaga University is located in the midsized city of Spokane in Washington state.

Number of undergraduate students: 5,495
Institutional control: Private not-for-profit
Percentage graduating within 8 years: 84%
Percentage making progress repaying federal student loans within 7 years: 92%
Largest number of bachelor completions: Business

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Methodology

We only show colleges and universities that offer primarily bachelor’s degrees at the undergraduate level and that report a seven-year federal loan repayment rate and an eight-year graduation rate.

In creating the selectivity rating, we calculated the percentile ranking in comparison to all schools for the following metrics describing the most recently reported entering class: high school GPA, 75th percentile of the combined ERW and math SAT scores, 75th percentile of the composite ACT score. We averaged any of the percentiles available (some schools do not report on all of these measures) to measure student standing, and averaged the student standing with the percentage of rejected applications to arrive at a selectivity rating. Colleges without selectivity data or with open enrollment are assigned a selectivity rating of 0, and the lowest 10% in our diagram is a bit fat because more than 10% of schools are in this category.

Our alumni outcomes rating was based on the eight-year graduation rate and the seven-year federal loan repayment rate. If you experiment with differing measures of quality using our school explorer you will find similar results. It turns out that loan default and repayment rates correlate very closely with earnings data for all alumni -- not just those who needed federal student aid. However, it takes many years to accumulate reliable earnings data, while loan repayment and default rates can be measured more quickly.

The eight-year graduation rate is taken from the outcomes data reported in the 2018 IPEDS data, and applies to all students seeking an undergraduate degree. Although standings could change for individual schools, the overall trend we see here is preserved if we only consider first-time full-time freshmen and/or six- or four-year graduation rates.

The federal loan repayment rate is from College Scorecard. This and the three-year default rate are available in our school explorer. The three-year rate is more sensitive to recent changes in quality and would result in a similar analysis.

For each of the two outcomes measures above, we labeled each school as performing in the top 10%, top 50% (excluding the top 10%), lower 50%, or lower 10%. Our top-performing schools scored in the top 10% for both measures.