For years,Washington Monthly has been rating and ranking the nation’s colleges.
But for its 2014 edition, the magazine has done something new. It has put out a list of what it says are the nation’s worst colleges. That is, schools with high tuition, low graduation rates and high student debt rates.
Consider the case of Ferrum College, a small, private, liberal arts school in southern Virginia. As the magazine points out, the school accepts over 90 percent of the kids who apply every year, but barely half ever come back for their second or sophomore year.
Ferrum students borrow more, default on their loans more and are less likely to graduate, compared with similar institutions. That’s why Ferrum finds itself on the magazine’s “worst” list.