Hampshire College Position Statement: U.S. Dept. of Education "College Scorecard"
This month the U.S. Department of Education released a new tool aimed at helping students, parents, and their advisers make better college choices, called the College Scorecard at CollegeScorecard.ed.gov. According to a White House Fact Sheet, the goal of the Scorecard is “to provide the clearest, most accessible, and most reliable national data on college cost, graduation, debt, and post-college earnings.”
Hampshire College believes the College Scorecard does not present an accurate picture of the value of our education nor reflect the feelings of our alumni about their education. A prime example, the College Scorecard shows that our young alumni who received financial aid earn a slightly lower average salary 10 years after matriculating than the national average. The Scorecard does not add any context nor present any salary data beyond 10 years after enrollment.
The following points reflect Hampshire College’s response to this data:
Hampshire ranks in the top 1% of colleges nationwide in graduates who go on to earn a doctorate. Distinct from alums of other colleges two-thirds (65%) of our alums earn a graduate degree within 10 years of graduating. The majority of our alumni delay their peak earnings by investing in graduate school.
Many Hampshire students enroll here because they believe in our mission-based education, our dedication to such values as ethical citizenship, sustainability, social justice, and diversity. Many of our alumni are not driven by salary and many are committed to nonprofit and not-for-profit careers including in social service, education, the arts, and volunteerism (the Peace Corps, etc.).
Hampshire College is sixth on Forbes list of most entrepreneurial colleges; more than a quarter of our alumni launch their own enterprise. Entrepreneurs, artists, and self-employed professionals often report minimum “income” because many of their living expenses are tied to their business and can be claimed as tax deductions. Entrepreneurs also assume more risk earlier in their career, with a chance of higher income and profits later.
Our low ratios of student debt and loan default confirm our alumni largely are not struggling to pay for their education. The typical total debt for Hampshire graduates is $20,000, lower than the debt held by graduates even of many public universities. Roughly 92% of Hampshire students are paying down their student loans, compared with the national average of 67%. The average debt of our graduates is well below the national average of $28,000.
The Scorecard data only includes students who received financial aid, skewing the results. The data also draws on financial data that is a year old, so it does not take into account a financial aid correction we made last year.
In an alumni survey, 89% of our graduates who responded reported receiving a job offer within one year of graduation. And we’re certainly proud that 94% of our alums told us they would recommend Hampshire College to high school students.