By Shlomie Katash
Brooklyn College shined on a recent ranking published by Forbes on Aug. 29, where it placed fourteenth on their “25 Colleges That Deliver a High Bang for Your Tuition Buck.”
Forbes crafted the list by synthesizing a number of factors to determine which colleges provide the best and quickest returns on investment. Most notably, data collected from Third Way, an independent think tank and research organization, was key in its formation. The data measured how long it took graduates of a specific school to pay off their degree using their excess earnings, or the monetary value their degree gets them on the job market over those without a college degree. They then filtered through the list to identify which schools had graduates who left with fewer student loans attached to their names.
Their analysis revealed that graduates of Brooklyn College can typically earn back their diploma within five months of graduation, with the median borrower taking out $11,000 in loans to finance their education. This, among other elements, was enough for the school to place above more expensive colleges such as Yale University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Harvard University, among others.
The magazine also noted that part of what makes BC noteworthy is due to how “incredibly diverse” the campus is, with an almost even divide of students who are white, Black, Asian, and Latinx. With so many students from various backgrounds, tuition is accessible regardless of their socioeconomic status.
Brooklyn College was among eight City University of New York schools highlighted on the Forbes list, placing below the College of Staten Island and Lehman College, and above John Jay College, City College, Baruch College, Queens College, and Hunter College.