Georgia Tech May Be Top College in America; Obama Launches College Site

By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Sep 14, 7:12AM EDT · Published Sep 13, 8:52AM EDT

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President Obama’s measure of education by college based on new ratings has finally launched. The College Score Card site, a U.S. Department of Education program, divides colleges and universities based on degrees, location and size. Depending on an analysis of the measurement by school, the Georgia Institute of Technology ranks first, at least for those who have the background to attend and want high salaries once they graduate.

As the Score Card went online, the White House said the president is committed to making sure there exists reliable information that helps students find the college that best fits their needs so that they can succeed.

The new website has a section called “check out these colleges.” The options are divided into “23 four-year schools with low costs with lead to high incomes”; two-year colleges, by state, “where students earn high salaries after graduation”; “30 four-year schools with high graduation rates and low costs; and “15 public four-year colleges with high graduation leading to high income.” Relying on the screens, private colleges like Harvard only make the list of institutions with large programs to help students pay tuition. MIT leads this list base on future income 10 years after entering school with a salary of $91,600, followed by Harvard at $87,200.

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The Obama program website also has a section on financial aid, aid cost evaluation and the GI Bill. The goal of the process it to marry the ability to pay for college with the most likely match by a person’s background to yield the best financial results after graduation.

The segment that has the highest incomes at the end of college is the “15 public four-year colleges high graduation leading to high income.” These schools are particularly affordable for students who live in the states where they are located. The one with the highest income level is the Georgia Institute of Technology, with a post-graduation income of $74,000 when a student is 10 years out from entering school. No other college or university on the list even comes close. The second school on the list is University of California-Berkeley at $62,700. Since jobs that require technology skills generally pay well, so the results make sense.

For the majority of high school graduates who do not have the background to go to public colleges, which have stiff academic barriers for entry, College Score Card has a strong value. Unlike lists that focus on the best schools regardless of ability to pay, the goal of U.S. Department of Education is to help a much broader number of people who want to get higher degrees.

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.