PROVIDENCE – A report measuring return on investments for colleges in the United States has found that Bryant University bachelor’s degrees have the highest long-term return on investment of any school in Rhode Island 40 years after enrollment.
The report, titled “A First Try at ROI: Ranking 4,500 Colleges,” was released last week by the Center on Education and the Workforce at Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy.
The report tracks costs, future earnings and the length of time it would take to invest and earn a certain amount of money over a fixed horizon and projects it at current day levels, 10, 15, 20, 30 and 40 years out. It ranked schools by Net Present Value, which estimates how future earnings are valued in the present.
Bryant was said to have a 40-year net present value of $1.39 million (No. 73 of all colleges in the report), just edging out Brown University at $1.38 million (No. 83).
Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences ranked No. 1 overall, with a 40-year NPV of $2.7 million.
Brown ranked higher on the 20-year net-present value at $619,000, compared with Bryant at $615,000.
All Rhode Island college’s 40-year net present value:
- Bryant University: No. 76 at $1.39 million
- Brown University: No. 83 at $1.38 million
- Providence College: No. 143 at $1.26 million
- University Of Rhode Island: No. 324 at $1.1 million
- Salve Regina University: No. 350 at $1.08 million
- New England Tractor Trailer Training School of Rhode Island: No. 350 at $1.04 million
- Roger Williams University: No. 634 at $981,000
- Rhode Island School of Design: No. 845 at $932,000
- New England Institute of Technology: No. 853 at $931,000
- Rhode Island College: No. 1,052 at $890,000
- Johnson & Wales University-Online: No. 1,717 at $791,000
- MotoRing Technical Training Institute: No. 1,856 at $773,000
- Johnson & Wales University-Providence: No. 1,967 at $756,000
- Community College of Rhode Island: No. 2,271 at $722,000
- Lincoln Technical Institute-Lincoln: 3,247 at $596,000
- Paul Mitchell the School Rhode Island: No. 3,674 at $527,000
- Empire Beauty School-Warwick: No. 3,872 at $497,000
Bristol County, Mass., schools:
- Stonehill College: No. 186 at $1.22 million
- University of Massachusetts Dartmouth: No. 571 at $1 million
- Wheaton University: No. 801 at $942,000
- Bristol Community College at $751,000
The study also found that in the long term, the net economic gains for attending a private for-profit college are $551,000, compared to $838,000 for a private nonprofit college and $765,000 for a public college.
A full version of the report may be viewed online.
Chris Bergenheim is the PBN Web Editor. You may reach him at Bergenheim@PBN.com.
