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College Scorecard Explained

From Cathy Turrentine, Institutional Research:

You may have heard the recent news about the White House’s new College Scorecard, which was put in place by the US Department of Education, and released about a week ago. The Scorecard is intended to serve as a resource for prospective students and families, to help them compare institutions, apples-to-apples. It’s worth taking a moment to understand which data were used to inform the Scorecard, because it is lacking in some areas. You can view Keene State’s scorecard here. You will see that based on how the data are interpreted, Keene State excels in some areas and is positioned less favorably in others.

Four- and Six-Year Graduation Measurement

The College Scorecard shows that Keene State students are more likely to graduate than students at most colleges nationally, using the common yardstick of completing a bachelor’s degree in six years. What isn’t reported here is the fact that Keene State students are also more than twice as likely as students at other public institutions to graduate in four years, something that is important to students and families (54 percent four-year graduation rate at Keene State vs. 25 percent for the average of all four-year public institutions).

Earnings Measurement

The Scorecard earnings figure represents income of former students, not just those who graduated, and only those who received federal financial aid (the Scorecard points out this is only 73 percent of our students). This figure shows the median income these former students report to the IRS 10 years after they enter Keene State, not 10 years after graduation. This would be about five to six years after graduation for those who complete degrees.

Our own survey of alumni five years after graduation shows a median income range of $40,000 to $45,000. Our findings are a little higher, which is consistent with the fact that we only survey students who completed their degrees, and we survey all graduates, not just those who received federal financial aid.

Loan Default Rate Measurement

One measure of the employment success of our alumni is the federal three-year student loan default rate. Keene State’s three-year student loan default rate is four percent – this is less than half the rate for New Hampshire as a whole, which is 8.4 percent, or for all public four-year institutions nationally, which is 8.9 percent. This finding is consistent with the College Scorecard statement that 92 percent of Keene State students have begun paying down the principal of their federal student loans within three years of leaving, while the national average is only 67 percent.

Scorecard is One Source of Information Among Many

The Scorecard is one form of assessment and data that is made publicly available, which can influence enrollment decisions. Keene State was again the top New Hampshire college, in the tier one list of Regional Universities in the North, in this year’s US News and World Report college rankings. We have strong, supportive data about student civic engagement and high impact practices through the National Student Survey of Student Engagement 2014. All of our data are available to the general public, including prospective students and their families. In addition to these, Keene State makes key institutional performance indicators available to the College community, along with comparison data for Keene State’s peer institutions. All employees can find these on the Q: drive in the IR Data folder.

I hope the information I provided has helped to explain this new tool from the US Department of Education. Should you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.

Contact Marketing & Communications

Sarah Kossayda
Director of Marketing
☎ 603-358-2119
Sarah.Kossayda@keene.edu