The Effect On Wage Of Attending A US News And World Report Best College

Abstract

A great deal of attention is paid to the annual release of the U.S. News and World Report college rankings. According to national surveys of college freshman, enhanced earning potential is a major motivator in their choosing to attend college and in their selecting which college to attend. Thus you would expect the U.S. News and World Report rankings to be highly correlated with those institutions whose students earn a wage premium. This paper uses the data set High School and Beyond to test the effect on wage of attending a college identified by U.S. News and World Report as a “best college.” I find no statistically significant relationship between attending a U.S. News and World Report “best college” and wage earned.