At a glance
President Dr. Skip Sullivan said, “I am extremely pleased about Alfred State’s top ranking in the Brookings Institution’s report. This ranking is a testament to the high-quality education our students receive here and I could not be more proud of our students, alumni, faculty, and staff.”
The Brookings Institution, a nonprofit public policy organization based in Washington, DC, has listed Alfred State in a recent report as the top two-year or lower college whose alumni possess the most valuable skills.
The report, “Beyond College Rankings: A Value-Added Approach to Assessing Two- and Four-Year Schools,” determined that the value of Alfred State alumni skills is $69,219, which is more than $9,500 greater than the average value of alumni skills at all two-year or lower colleges, $59,664.
Dr. Jonathan Rothwell, a fellow at the Metropolitan Policy Program at Brookings, said the institution obtained a list of the 25 most commonly listed skills on LinkedIn resumes for roughly 2,500 colleges, then evaluated those skills by matching them to those advertised on millions of online job vacancies posts, in which the vacancy had included both a skill and a salary.
“High-value alumni skills, like those listed by Alfred State alumni, are those associated with high average salaries,” Rothwell said.
The significance of Alfred State’s top ranking, according to Rothwell, is that it implies that the content of what is taught at the college either directly provides skills highly valued in the labor market or prepares students to acquire those skills after leaving Alfred State.
“The fact that Alfred State ranks at the top suggests that its teachers instill the most valuable skills in the country, relative to all other two-year colleges,” he said.
The value of alumni skills, Rothwell said, was one of the most important predictors of strong performance on the three alumni economic outcomes that Brookings measured: mid-career salaries, loan repayment rates, and occupational earnings power.
“Notably, alumni skills not only predict better outcomes for alumni, they predict higher value-added performance,” Rothwell said. “That is to say, that even after controlling for student characteristics — like test scores and family income — higher value skills predict greater success. Alfred State scored in the top 2 percent and top 9 percent of all colleges on value-added contribution to occupational earnings power and loan repayment.”
Alfred State President Dr. Skip Sullivan said, “I am extremely pleased about Alfred State’s top ranking in the Brookings Institution’s report. This ranking is a testament to the high-quality education our students receive here and I could not be more proud of our students, alumni, faculty, and staff.”