Clark University is one of the nation’s best colleges for students seeking a superb education with great career preparation and at any affordable price, as recognized in The Princeton Review‘s just-released book, “Colleges That Pay You Back: The 200 Schools That Give You the Best Bang for Your Tuition Buck.”
“Clark offers the research and internship opportunities of a large research institution with the personal instruction and help of a small liberal arts school,” reads a portion of the Clark University profile featured by The Princeton Review.
The Princeton Review chose the schools based on ROI (return on investment) ratings it tallied for 650 schools last year. The ratings weighted 40 data points that covered everything from academics, cost, and financial aid to graduation rates, student debt, and alumni salaries and job satisfaction. Editors culled data from the company’s surveys of administrators and students in 2014-15 and from PayScale.com’s surveys of school alumni conducted through April 2015.
“Clark’s selection as a college that delivers the ‘best bang for the buck’ is not surprising given the opportunities afforded to Clarkies by our Liberal Education & Effective Practice philosophy,” Don Honeman, Clark’s Dean of Admissions & Financial Aid, said. “LEEP ensures that our students gain real-world problem-solving experience while engaging the consequential issues of 21st century life. These are experiences that are directly related to what our students learn in the classroom. The payoff comes, not only in the form of remuneration in their professional lives, but also in the knowledge that they are making a real difference and meeting the expectations framed by our motto, ‘Challenge Convention. Change Our World.’ ”
Hear from students and alumni at Clark’s Return on Education site.
Read more about Clark University’s rankings and recognition.
View career profiles of more than 23,000 members of the Clark community, including over 1,578 entrepreneurs, on the Clark LinkedIn page.
Clark also is listed among the new book’s Top 25 Best Schools for Making an Impact, a selection based on student ratings and responses to survey questions covering community service opportunities at their school, student government, sustainability efforts and on-campus student engagement. The book also took into account PayScale.com’s percentage of alumni from each school that reported having high job meaning.
Here is an excerpt from the Clark University profile at The Princeton Review:
Students come to Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, “for an intimate and comfortable classroom environment” and a “diverse atmosphere” that nurtures a “dynamic community of socially conscious students.” … Clark focuses on getting its 2,300 students hands-on training with a career focus. Clarkies rave about the school’s Liberal Education & Effective Practice program, which “gives us immense opportunities to explore careers in different fields” through projects that pair curriculum and independent study with internships or volunteer work with outside organizations. Clark students who go through the LEEP program find that they are “graduating as a much more rounded and employable student.” Students universally praise the faculty as “really good, caring professors, who are legitimately interested in their students’ academic progress,” but who also care about their “overall achievement and well-being.”
“We highly recommend Clark University, and all of our Colleges That Pay You Back schools. They stand out not only for their outstanding academics but also for their affordability via comparatively low sticker prices and/or generous financial aid to students with need – or both,” said Robert Franek, The Princeton Review’s Senior VP/Publisher and lead author of the book. “Students at these colleges also have access to extraordinary career services programs from their freshman year on, plus a lifetime of alumni connections and post-grad support.”
The “Career Information” section of the profile lists an exceptional ROI rating score of 89 for Clark. It also cites PayScale.com figures reporting Clark graduates with at least a bachelor’s degree have a median starting salary of $42,300 and median mid-career salary of $90,900.
The Princeton Review does not rank the colleges in the book overall, 1-to-200, on a single list.
Founded in 1887 in Worcester, Massachusetts, Clark University is a liberal arts-based research university addressing social and human imperatives on a global scale. Nationally renowned as a college that changes lives, Clark is emerging as a transformative force in higher education today. LEEP (Liberal Education and Effective Practice) is Clark’s pioneering model of education that combines a robust liberal arts curriculum with life-changing world and workplace experiences. Clark’s faculty and students work across boundaries to develop solutions to complex challenges in the natural sciences, psychology, geography, management, urban education, Holocaust and genocide studies, environmental studies, and international development and social change. The Clark educational experience embodies the University’s motto: Challenge Convention. Change Our World.
About The Princeton Review: The Princeton Review is a leading tutoring, test prep and college admission services company. Every year, it helps millions of college- and graduate school-bound students achieve their education and career goals through online and in person courses delivered by a network of more than 4,000 teachers and tutors, online resources, and its more than 150 print and digital books published by Penguin Random House. The Princeton Review is headquartered in Natick, MA and is an operating business of Match Group.