College Scorecard ranks SJU, CSB high in earnings category

There’s an old saying that you can’t tell a player without a scorecard.

The U.S. Department of Education has taken that bit of advice and applied it to colleges across the United States.

The 2017 College Scorecard ranks both the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University among the top nonprofit private and public schools in Minnesota in two important categories – salary after attending college and graduation rates.

SJU was first among nonprofit private and public school in Minnesota in salary after attending, with $59,100. That’s $3,500 more than second-place the University of St. Thomas ($55,600).

CSB ranks sixth on this list, with earnings of $50,000.

Both schools are also ranked highly among single-sex colleges. SJU ranks first nationally in salary after attending college among four men’s colleges, while CSB ranks fifth among 39 women’s colleges (it is also the highest ranked women’s college in the Midwest).

College Scorecard defines salary after attending as “the median earnings of former students who received federal aid, at 10 years after entering school.”

In the graduation rate category among nonprofit private and public schools in the state, CSB ranked fourth with an 83 percent graduation rate. SJU was ranked sixth with a 78 percent graduation rate.

College Scorecard defines graduation as “the graduation rate within 150 percent of the expected time to completion (typically six years for predominantly four-year degrees … ) These rates are only for full-time students enrolled for the first time.”

In September 2015, President Barack Obama announced the redesigned College Scorecard to provide students and families nationally comparable data on institutional outcomes. These include statistics on debt, federal loan repayment, completion rates and post-college earnings of alumni in an easy-to-understand format.

The Department of Education released its inaugural update of data in 2016.