Related to Ivy thread-- but on a cost-benefit angle, so I didn't want to just add it to that one.
CCAP/Forbes has announced their list of top colleges.
Forbes 2014 Top Colleges (US)This aspect of college expense drivers, though, was NOT something I've often seen coverage of in the national press:
Sacrificing College Quality on the Alter {sic} of Athletic Spending(And---oooooooooo-- editorial staff at Forbes... alter =/= 'altar' for whatever that is worth, but I digress. It is an interesting error from a philosophical stance, since I think that most colleges are pretty wedded to the notion that athletic spending drives alumni donors, but CHANGE certainly isn't in the direction of reductions in program spending, at any rate.)
This is what faculty have said for a
long time at academic institutions; that the athletic department mission and that of the institution as a whole are often worlds apart, and can only be adequately described as "operating at cross-purposes" much of the time. This is borne out by evaluations of student athlete GPA, majors, and graduation rates, etc.
Some interesting data on that subject:
College Athletics finances and subsidiesSo if you sort that table in order of lowest to highest SUBSIDY, only a handful of programs actually have a
zero subsidy from the general fund or student fees.
Interestingly, there are some big Division I programs that have VERY low subsidies, though-- and some Div II schools that have large ones.
