University Receives High Marks in White House's New Online College Scorecard

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The University of Arkansas received good scores across the board from a new interactive website designed by the White House to help students and families decide which college or university is the best fit and provides the best value for them. The site, College Scorecard, was launched this week and currently includes four key pieces of information about colleges: tuition costs, graduation rates, loan default rates, and the average amount borrowed by students.

According to the site, the U of A has “low” costs, a “high” graduation rate, a loan default rate about half the national average and scores in the “medium” range for the average monthly amount of student loan repayments. The site also connects to the university’s net price calculator to allow for more individualized cost estimates.

“This new tool is further proof that the University of Arkansas provides one of the best college values in the U.S.,” said Suzanne McCray, vice provost for enrollment management and dean of admissions. “The site was created as the president says ‘to help families get the most bang for their educational buck’ and obviously we feel that the U of A provides an excellent education at a very competitive cost.”

After linking to the site, users can search for data on specific colleges and universities by name. Users looking for information about the University of Arkansas should not add a space after typing the name of the university .

Earlier this year, the University of Arkansas was recognized as one of the top 75 ‘Best Values’ among public colleges and universities by The Princeton Review and as one of the top 100 ‘Best Values in Public Colleges according to Kiplinger’s Personal Finance.

Last year, the U of A ranked 44^th on Forbes’ annual “Top 100 Best Buy Colleges,” climbing 22 spots in the rankings in three years. According to Forbes, the University of Arkansas provides a better overall value than most Southeastern Conference members and many other public institutions in the region. Forbes calculates the “Top 100 Best Buy Colleges” list by taking a school’s overall quality rank on Forbes’ list of “America’s Top Colleges” and dividing that number by the amount of the school’s tuition and additional fees.

The university was also recognized last year as one of “America’s 100 Best College Buys” as a part of the 22^nd annual national college survey conducted by Institutional Research & Evaluation Inc.