Pitt Among 'Colleges That Pay You Back'

The University of Pittsburgh is profiled in “Colleges That Pay You Back: The 200 Schools That Give You the Best Bang for Your Tuition Buck,” released Jan. 16 by The Princeton Review. The book and online resource are guides to the nation’s academically best and most affordable colleges that also have excellent records of alumni employment.

Pitt’s inclusion in this book is the latest in a series of accolades for the University, which was recognized as the best public university in the Northeast and the best public value in Pennsylvania.

The Princeton Review selected the “best value” schools by measuring 40 weighted data points: everything from academics, cost, financial aid and student debt to statistics on graduation rates, alumni salaries and job satisfaction. The company used data collected in 2016-17 from its surveys of administrators and students at 658 colleges, plus surveys conducted by PayScale.com through April 2017 of alumni of the same schools.

The Princeton Review’s profile of Pitt praises the University as an “academic powerhouse” and includes comments from student surveys:

• Pitt is “a big school with all the perks of a small school” and most students “are involved in at least one activity.”
• “Pitt is one of the best schools to help students with experiential learning, whether it be through an internship, research experience or even service learning experience.”
• Many also extol Pittsburgh itself as a hotbed of “career opportunities.”

The 2018 “Colleges That Pay You Back” project is an expansion of The Princeton Review’s annual “Best Value Colleges” list and book first published in 2004. The Princeton Review is an academic tutoring, test preparation and college admission services company.