Best Value Colleges has released their rankings of Top 50 Best Value Colleges for Teaching Degrees; Appalachian State University has been ranked 6th.
About Appalachian, they said:
To reduce the cost of your already cheap bachelor’s degree in teaching at Appalachian State, you can take advantage of generous scholarships for education majors. Aimed at attracting teachers to high-need communities in North Carolina, the largest scholarship program is available for anyone majoring in elementary education, the middle grades, or special education. What’s more, this sense of duty to the community infuses all of Appalachian State’s programs. A dedicated Center of Appalachian Educators provides support for education majors, while a Public School Partnership connects students with local schools and parents to foster collaboration and solve problems.
The 50 Top Teacher Education Programs Ranking Methodology
Selection Criteria
For this ranking, we focused on four-year, public and private (non-profit) colleges and universities that offer multiple bachelor’s degrees in teaching. To be eligible for consideration on this ranking, each school had to be actively conferring degrees to students in each of its teacher education programs (at least five per program in the past year). Because of our focus on affordability, we also limited consideration to schools with an average annual net price below $30,000. Lastly, we created a minimum threshold for quality by only researching colleges with retention and graduation rates greater than 50% and admission rates below 85%.
Ranking Factors
Once we had our initial list of contenders, we ranked all the eligible programs in six categories:
- Teaching Program Popularity: How many students earned their bachelor’s degree in teaching last year, and what did that represent as a percentage of the total graduating class?
- Breadth/Activity of Teaching Degree Programs: How many total teacher education programs does the school offer, and what is the average number of students who graduated from each program last year?
- Acceptance Rate: What percentage of applicants does the school admit each year?
- Graduation Rate: What percentage of undergraduates earn their degree within 150% of the expected timeframe?
- Retention Rate: What percentage of freshmen return to the school for their sophomore year?
- Net Price: What is the average annual cost of attending the school after adding together the price of tuition, fees, and room/board then subtracting the average financial aid package awarded to undergrads?
Next, we crunched the numbers, scaled the scores so that the top program earned the maximum possible points, and assigned each school a total point value out of 100.
About Best Value Colleges
Our mission is to help you in your quest. We provide you with clear, credible guidance to help you the find the best college for you.
Cost Versus Value
A college degree is the best way to a good future, but it does come with a price tag. For many students and their families, it’s best to tackle the issue head-on and look at prospective colleges based upon the value of an education from the prospective university. To explain:
The cost of the college education includes tuition, books, and fees. What most people forget to include are things like cost-of-living outside of the university. This includes off-campus housing when the student is an upperclassman, cultural/social activities, and overall cost-of-living (i.e., groceries, utilities, etc.).
In simple economic terms, the value of the degree is what you gain by earning the degree.
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