The Daily Reveille compiled data from the White House website’s College Scorecard indicating the University ranks seventh in the state in graduation rate and is second-lowest in loan defaults, with only 4.9 percent of students defaulting on student loans.
In the data compiled by The Reveille, the University weighs in as the 23rd most expensive institution in Louisiana
Conventional rating systems, like the one published annually by the U.S. News and World Report, use different statistics from universities than the scorecard, such as acceptance rates and the number of classes with fewer than 20 students. While the scorecard gives more information about the affordability of a university, it does not offer a ranking system to compare schools.
LSU President F. King Alexander said to make sure people are comparing apples to apples when looking at The Reveille’s compilation of data, because the data includes two-year institutions as well as four-year universities.
The White House College Scorecard was launched in February 2013, but some of the data it uses dates back as far as the 2010-11 school year. It offers a new way to look at choosing where to go to school because it rates universities based on metrics that show the affordability of an education, such as the percentage of student loan defaults, average amount of money borrowed by students and average yearly cost.
The White House College Scorecard reports that the average student at the University borrows $172.62 per month, and the average cost per student is $10,629 per year, but many students pay less because of TOPS.
In January, Alexander traveled to the University of Wisconsin-Madison to speak about the scorecard after attending a White House summit in Washington
Alexander said he heard about a family who had to use their retirement funds to pay for their children to go to private universities, because of a “Northeastern mentality” of higher cost equaling better education, which he said he thinks the scorecard proves wrong.


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