By Susan Alaimo
A college investment is one of the largest expenses that most families will face in their lifetime. Yet many students and parents find themselves choosing an institute of higher learning without doing any serious homework that could help identify best-fit colleges where students could prepare for the career of their dreams, at an affordable cost, with the likelihood of earning an impressive salary over the course of their career., A good place for families to start their research is at www.CollegeBoard.org. There they will find a College Search database that contains information on more than 2,000 four-year colleges in the United States. By selecting specific criteria regarding school size, location, availability of on-campus housing, choice of major, and other aspects of college life, students can easily identify colleges that might be a great match., Of course, students typically worry about their chances of getting accepted to an impressive college or university. A little research, here too, can help put into prospective their likelihood of meeting with success. Money Magazine recently published its 2017 list, The 50 Best Colleges You Can Actually Get Into. The schools listed, which all accept more than 50% of their applicants, include: Rutgers University – New Brunswick, Muhlenberg College, James Madison University, Texas A & M, Virginia Tech, University of Delaware, Manhattan College, Clemson University and the Massachusetts Maritime Academy., U.S. News and World Report’s Best Value Schools evaluate colleges and universities based on their academic quality and the cost of attendance for students who receive the average level of need-based financial aid. Their list was topped by all of the Ivy League schools (Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Columbia, Dartmouth, Brown, University of Pennsylvania and Cornell). Additional schools high on the list were: Stanford, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.), Duke, California Institute of Technology, University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill, University of Chicago, Rice, Brigham Young University – Provo, Emory, Northwestern, and Johns Hopkins University., Students seeking information on colleges with the highest paid graduates can access the College Salary Report by PayScale. Considering the mid-career annual salaries of students with only a Bachelor’s degree, SUNY Maritime College topped their list with a reported income of $144,000. It was followed by M.I.T., Harvey Mudd College, Princeton University, Stanford University, U.S. Military Academy at West Point, U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, U.S. Air Force Academy at Colorado Springs, University of Pennsylvania, Harvard University, Babson College, Santa Clara University, Bates College, Carnegie Mellon University and Dartmouth College., With a substantial investment of time and money at stake, students and parents should be sure to get all the facts before making their college decisions., Susan Alaimo is the founder and director of SAT Smart in Hillsborough that has been offering PSAT, SAT, and ACT preparation courses, as well as private tutoring by IVY-League educated instructors, for more than 20 years. Visit www.SATsmart.com.
