As you or members of your family gear up to visit colleges with your kids or grandkids this spring, make your first stop Kiplinger’s 2017 rankings of the top 300 college values. They’ll help you narrow your search and potentially save you tens of thousands of dollars.
Once you’ve zeroed in on your top candidates, go to each school’s website to see how it measures outcomes for its graduates. When you arrive on campus, stop at the career center to find out about counseling services, internships, grad-school opportunities and job recruiting. Does the school have a vibrant alumni network? Pepper your campus tour guide with questions about student involvement and the campus social scene, which are particularly difficult to quantify. And remember that no single source can give you the whole story. In a twist on the old adage, Kaitlin observes that when it comes to choosing a college, you should “measure three times and cut once.”
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