The Economist ranks BGSU No. 1 of Ohio public universities for return on education

BGSU ranks first among public universities in Ohio for boosting former students’ earnings 10 years after college, according to a national ranking by The Economist magazine.

The college ranking is the first of its kind the magazine has conducted, and focuses on how much the colleges help their students succeed economically. In a review of 1,275 four-year, non-vocational colleges and universities, the ranking measures how much attendees earn compared to their peers from other schools.

According to the Economist poll website, the magazine’s first-ever college rankings are based on the premise that the economic value of a university is equal to the gap between how much money its students subsequently earn, and how much they might have made had they studied elsewhere.

The magazine made its calculations using data from the U.S. Department of Education’s recently released “College Scorecard.”

“The government generated the numbers by matching individuals’ student-loan applications to their subsequent tax returns, making it possible to compare pupils’ qualifications and demographic characteristics when they entered college with their salaries 10 years later. That information offers the potential to disentangle student merit from university contributions, and thus to determine which colleges deliver the greatest return and why,” the magazine said.

“The Economist’s study is further affirmation of the tremendous value and quality of a BGSU education,” said President Mary Ellen Mazey. “The focus of our BG Experience — faculty mentoring, a strong undergraduate curriculum, and internships or other experiential learning experiences — helps launch students successfully into the world of work.”