Possible causes may include lower funding, graduation rates
USC is no longer in the top 50 for best educational value per dollar, according to a national finance magazine.
Kiplinger Magazine annually rates the top 100 “Best Values in Public Colleges,” of over 500 US schools based on affordability and academic quality, and the newly released 2012 list places South Carolina at 57th for in-state value, 15 spots down from last year and 35 from 2010. USC’s out-of-state ranking dropped 12 spots, from 55 to 67.
According to Kiplinger, rankings take into account financial aid, average student debt, SAT and ACT scores of incoming freshmen, graduation rates and academic support. In 2011, USC’s four-year graduation rate dipped to 46 percent, an eight percent drop from 2007 and nearly half the rate at top-ranking schools including UVA and UNC-Chapel Hill. According to Vice Provost Dennis Pruitt, reducing time spent toward an undergraduate degree would help USC’s rank by reducing total cost per student, which currently totals an average of $19,144 for in-state students and $35,328 for out of state students ($14,117 and $30,301 respectively with need-based aid).
“We are most concerned with helping students graduate in four years so the cost to students can be reduced by not paying for a fifth or sixth year of educational expenses,” Pruitt said in an email response. “Much of the activity you see us studying and pursuing — grade recalculation, change in probation and suspension rules, starting a Student Success Center to provide supplemental instruction, tutoring, study and time management skills — is for this reason.”
Pruitt also cited slashes in state funding for USC’s trailing behind consistently top-ranked schools, including consecutive 11-year winner UNC-Chapel Hill and close runner-up University of Florida. According to a 2011 budget report from the Office of Business and Finance, base state appropriations were reduced by nearly $27 million last year, a 21-percent decline that contributed to 3.9-percent tuition and fee increases. The same year, state funding for Chapel Hill fell only 1.3 percent, and still covered 20 percent of the university’s operating budget.
However, South Carolina’s comparative standing may shift as Chapel Hill now faces a permanent 18-percent budget cut and Florida has seen increases in tuition of up to 15 percent in the past two years.
“It will be interesting to see how they compare in future years as they face some of the same financial management challenges we have already faced,” Pruitt said.
Despite moving down the list of the top 100, USC saw a near 100-point increase in freshmen SAT scores and a 45-percent growth in undergraduate population in the past 10 years. Pruitt credits the nationally recognized Darla Moore School of Business, University 101 program, “Gamecock Guarantee” financial aid for students from low-income families and the up-and-coming USC Connect for USC’s continued ranking in the top 100 for “value over cost.”
“We have not taken the path of being smaller to exclude some students that might adversely affect our profile so we look more selective,” Pruitt wrote. “We have many more students coming to USC who are from the lowest [socioeconomic status], which we’re proud of, and we have not had to increase our tuition at bizarrely high rates — some increases have been as high as 40 percent. We have remained true to our to mission as a public, state university, all the while getting bigger to educate more students.”