UTRGV No. 2 nationally in affordability

UTRGV has been ranked second in the nation in affordability and seventh best public university in the nation by an education research company.

The objective of Degreechoices, founded in 2021, is to focus on the economic factor of the school in question, according to Carly Brown, head of university and media relations for the organization.

“There’s been a lot of ink spilled on how expensive schools have gotten and it’s becoming harder and harder to pay back debt,” David Levy, the architect of the ranking system, told The Rider in a Zoom interview Feb. 28. “I think students are asking themselves more, and also parents and taxpayers, is it worth it? And I think a lot of the ranking systems out there aren’t sort of zooming in on that sort of economic perspective.”

Levy said other ranking systems take into consideration factors, such as endowment size, test scores and rate of alumni. This information can be useful, but Levy believes that it is not something that should contribute to choosing between one school or another.

“I think the point of Degreechoices in the space that we’re in … is to give students and prospective students a really clear idea: This is what the economic outlook looks like for this school for this program without loads of other layers kind of built into it, which you don’t get a choice in choosing how that affects the scoring of a school,” Brown said.

Writing and Language Studies Professor Randall Monty worries that the economic ranking does not reflect other factors UTRGV and other universities are known for, such as its first-generation college students. 

“It’s a family connection university,” Monty said. “That is important but is not reflected in those economic-only data. Even though that ranking looks pretty good, ‘Hey, No. 7 in the country,’ there’s a lot of things we’re doing well that don’t get accounted for.”

The professor said he and his wife graduated from legacy institution University of Texas-Pan American and their daughter, from UTRGV. 

The return a student may expect on their education investments should be an important factor in attending college. The mission at Degreechoices is to help students analyze the economic track records of different universities, according to its website.

“We wanted it to be this sort of really straightforward, transparent, no fluff way for students to be able to see that,” Brown said. “It’s something that people have been waiting for … a lot of schools have known this internally, that their school delivers for students but they haven’t really had a way of proving it, or showing it without having to collect a load of data from loads of different colleges.”

Michelle Chino, a freshman postbaccalaureate nursing major, said the university’s financial accessibility allows her more flexibility. 

“I wouldn’t have to worry about taking a full-time job,” Chino said. “I’d be able to survive off of [a] part-time [job]. Also, the help with financial aid. Right now, I don’t have financial aid. I paid out of pocket. But compared to bigger universities where you would pay a lot more, it’s very helpful.”

UTRGV President Guy Bailey told The Rider last Wednesday that the rankings benefit the university because it has been “very successful” in what it set out to do, “creating a very high value in education.”

“What I mean by that is this: Value is a combination of quality plus price,” Bailey said. “ That high ranking tells you that we have a very high quality for a very good price. That’s really what we set out to do. The other thing about these rankings is they focus on the success of our students once they graduate. You’re ranked highly if your students graduate with very little debt, and they can quickly pay off any debt they have once they graduate and that’s exactly what they are able to do.”

Through Degreechoices, UTRGV was ranked —

–No. 1 public school in Texas, with the University of Texas at Austin placing second and Texas Woman’s University placing third.

–No. 2 most affordable national university, with City College of New York in first place and the University of Florida in third.

–No. 7  best public school in the country, with the Georgia Institute of Technology in fifth place and the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor in sixth.

Levy said the company uses two metrics, payback and earnings, to determine the economic score. Degreechoices focuses specifically on economic return and investment, particularly, how far someone’s dollar will get them at different universities. 

They gather this information off the websites, the Integrated Postsecondary Education System and the U.S. Education Department College Scorecard.

Payback is determined by how much an average student will receive from the Free Application for Student Aid and an assumption on the average time to graduate, based on the U.S. Education Department data, according to Levy. They then come up with a total cost the average student pays the school. 

Levy then looks at the marginal earnings. 

“[We,] basically, look at the amount of money earned from a student after leaving the school, after a certain amount of time, minus what they would make if they [had] just got a high school diploma.”

Bailey is proud of the rankings, saying what they have been aiming for has shown to be successful.

“We’re very proud because what we’ve done has been intentional,” he said. “When we see these kinds of rankings, we know that the intentions that we’ve had [have] been successful. Anytime that you intend to do something and you actually achieve it, you have some pride there.”

UTRGV is hoping that prospective students will look to the university for high value education.

“If students are looking for value in higher education, they’ll look at UTRGV because we offer the best combination of quality and price anywhere in Texas,” Bailey said.