Forbes Study Names Florida Tech among Top 15 Percent of Americas Colleges

MELBOURNE, FLA.—A special report of Forbes places Florida Institute of Technology among the top 15 percent of America’s colleges. The report, created in collaboration with the Center for College Affordability and Productivity (CCAP), ranks public and private colleges and universities from the student’s point of view.

“We are naturally pleased and proud of this new recognition of Florida Tech as a high-ranking university,” said President Anthony J. Catanese. “National acknowledgment of the success of our faculty and students is extremely gratifying.”

The report states: “To our way of thinking, a good college is one that meets student needs. While some college rankings are based partly on school reputation as evaluated by college administrators and on the amount of money spent, we focus on things which directly concern incoming students: Will my courses be interesting and rewarding? Will I get a good job after I graduate? Is it likely I will graduate in four years? Will I incur a ton of debt getting my degree?”

According to the U.S. Department of Education, there are more than 4,000 college campuses in the United States and the CCAP ranks only the top 15 percent or so of all undergraduate institutions.

The CCAP staff gathered information from a variety of sources. They based a portion of the rankings on four million student evaluations of courses and instructors. Another portion is based on post-graduate success, equally determined by enrollment-adjusted entries in Who’s Who in America and by a new metric, the average salaries of graduates reported by Payscale.com. An additional portion is based on the estimated average student debt after four years.

Additionally, the rankings are partly based on four-year college graduation rates—half of that is the actual graduation rate, the other half is the gap between the average rate and a predicted rate based on characteristics of the school. The last assessment component is based on the number of students or faculty—adjusted for enrollment—who have won nationally competitive awards like Rhodes Scholarships or Nobel Prizes.

For more information, visit www.forbes.com/2009.