Company calls Westminster “best value”

Staff report

NEW WILMINGTON, PA.

A study by a financial data and technology company, SmartAsset, ranked Westminster College as the No. 1 school providing the “best value” in Pennsylvania.

In the study, the company captured the true cost of attending a school by evaluating these factors: tuition (using in-state tuition for public schools where applicable), student living costs (including room and board, books, supplies, transportation and other personal expenses) and the average scholarships and grants offered to students of the school.

To determine what students get in return, they examined student retention rate (the percent of students that re-enrolled at the institution the following year) and their average starting salary after graduation.

“Being student-centered is at the core of the Westminster College education,” said Thomas Stein, vice president for enrollment at Westminster. “Westminster is committed to making education affordable to every student.

“The academic standards of faculty creates classroom expectations and focus by our students, resulting in students graduating on time and excelling beyond the classroom.”

The study weighted each of the five factors equally to come up with a ranking of schools in the analysis.

With that ranking, Smart- Asset created an index (a sort of grading on a curve) where the top school was assigned 100. Westminster College scored well across the board.

SmartAsset is based in New York City and is backed by investors, including Y Combinator, Javelin Venture Partners, North Bridge Venture Partners, Quotidian Ventures and Peterson Ventures.