Forbes and Money magazines cite Rowan among “top” and “best” colleges for 2016

New studies by Forbes and Money magazines rank Rowan University among the “Top Colleges” in the U.S. for 2016 and among the “Best Colleges 2016-17,” respectively.

The Forbes study was released in a special edition under the heading “America’s Top Colleges: the 600+ Schools Well Worth the Investment.”

In addition to Rowan’s overall ranking of #471, the University placed #156 among Public Colleges and #165 in the Northeast in the Forbes survey of 660 well-regarded colleges and universities.

Unlike some ranking organizations that factor in “selectivity metrics” like high school class rank, SAT scores, etc., the Forbes methodology focused on return on the college investment (employment) and what students get out of college (experience).

Forbes based its findings on data reported by the U.S. Department of Education, Payscale.Com, a market leader in employment compensation data, and the magazine’s internal database for measuring alumni success.

A brief profile of Rowan included in Forbes’ online report notes that Rowan is a public research university, one of just two schools in the U.S. to offer both M.D. and D.O. medical degrees, and that it offers specialized programming to help students earn a four-year baccalaureate degree in as little as three years. It also notes that Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee Patti Smith, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Trymaine Lee and exercise entrepreneur Shaun “Shaun T.” Blokker all attended the University.

In the Money magazine ranking, Rowan placed 492 out of 705 schools surveyed.  

That study measured educational quality, affordability, and alumni success plus “comparative value,” how well students performed versus other students of similar economic and academic backgrounds within schools’ majors.

Like Forbes, Money gauged educational quality, affordability and alumni success using data from the U.S. Department of Education and PayScale.com as well as Peterson's, a marketer of higher education information.

In Money’s online profile it noted that in “Rowan’s Virtual Reality Center, a $5 million research lab, students interested in new technologies get to study and develop 3D mapping projects, like rocket test engines for NASA.”