Forbes: ESF a ‘Best Buy’ College

Ranking takes consumers' point of view
8/9/2012

The SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF) has earned a place on Forbes' "Top 100 Best Buy Colleges" list for 2012.

ESF is No. 54 in the rankings, which take into consideration a school's quality and the cost of attendance.

The Forbes rankings are calculated by taking a school's overall quality rank from Forbes' annual list of "America's Top Colleges" and dividing that number by the school's tuition (in-state where applicable) and additional fees. Forbes states, "Our quality rank hones in on the quality of teaching, career prospects, graduation rates and the levels of debt graduates seem to amass."

Other SUNY schools on the Best Buy list are the four university centers (at Binghamton, Stony Brook, Buffalo and Albany) and the college at Geneseo.

ESF has been listed on Forbes' Best Buy list each year since the rankings began in 2010. The College has also been included in the magazine's broader ranking of "America's Top Colleges" for each of those years.

According to Forbes Editor Michael Noer, "This is a really interesting list. Other places do rankings and a lot of their rankings are focused on things like reputation and how much money they spend per student. What we really try to do here is to look at colleges as a consumer might look at them."