By UNIVERSITY RELATIONS<\/b><\/p>\n
Among the 100 U.S. colleges and universities judged by The Washington Monthly as the Best Four-Year Colleges for Adult Learners out of 1,124 across the nation, Fort Hays State University was ranked 10th.<\/p>\n
The ranking \u2013 which in addition to master\u2019s universities such as Fort Hays State also covered national research institutions, liberal arts colleges and baccalaureate colleges \u2013 was announced in the magazine\u2019s September-October issue, available online at https:\/\/washingtonmonthly.com<\/a>. The complete listings are available at https:\/\/washingtonmonthly.com\/2018college-guide<\/a>.<\/p>\n Gilad Edelman, editor of The Washington Monthly, said in the introduction to the magazine\u2019s adult learner rankings that \u201ca full 30 percent of undergraduates\u201d in America are \u201cadults, defined by the government as 25 years old or older.\u201d This category of students, he said, \u201care too often ignored by university leaders and policymakers, whose own college experience was typically the traditional full-time, straight-out-of-high-school kind.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s why,\u201d he said, \u201cin 2016, The Washington Monthly became the first publication to rank colleges according to how well they cater to adult learners.\u201d<\/p>\n Fort Hays State was also ranked No. 25 of 385 universities in the 12-state Midwestern region (one of five) for a category called Best Bang for the Buck, and No. 116 of the 695 institutions in the Master\u2019s Universities category.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Washington Monthly\u2019s focus on accessibility and perseverance mirrors our own,\u201d said FHSU President Tisa Mason.<\/p>\n \u201cTheir criteria also focus on the benefits to the student and society, and those are also large parts of our mission,\u201d she said. \u201cIt is extremely gratifying to see someone give priority to measuring the things that really matter, and for our success in them to be recognized.\u201d<\/p>\n The Best Bang Midwest region, in addition to Kansas, has Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin. The five regions covered 1,488 institutions, which included the 1,124 in the adult learners category.<\/p>\n The institutions were broken down into classifications: 695 Master\u2019s Universities; 316 National Universities (\u201cbig, research-focused institutions\u201d); 228 Liberal Arts Colleges; and 249 Baccalaureate Institutions.<\/p>\n Washington Monthly\u2019s top 100 in the adult learners category were based on nine criteria aiming at a measure of social mobility, including: Other criteria for adult learners were mean earnings of independent students 10 years after college entry, and loan repayment rate of independent students five years after leaving college. Data for those categories was drawn from a federal database that cross-checked information from the U.S. Department of Education and the IRS.<\/p>\n Criteria for the Best Bang for the Buck were 21 categories of data, which were also aimed at achieving a determination on social mobility.<\/p>\n \u201cUnlike most traditional college rankings, the Washington Monthly\u2019s have always made colleges\u2019 contribution to social mobility a priority,\u201d said Robert Kelchen in the introduction to the Best Bang rankings. Kelchen, an assistant professor of higher education in the Department of Education Leadership, Management, and Policy at Seton Hall University, South Orange, N.J., is data manager for Washington Monthly.<\/p>\n In addition to U.S. Department of Education data previously available, such as loan repayment rates, earnings and percentage of first-generation students, Kelchen said, data is also now available on graduation rates for all students, not just first-time, full-time students, and on Pell Grant recipients.<\/p>\n Other data included in the ranking are college loan repayment rates, predicted and actual performance, net price of attendance for families below $75,000 income, median earnings, predicted median earnings, and a ranking based on the difference.<\/p>\n Fort Hays State was one of only two Kansas schools to make the top 150 of Master\u2019s Universities list. Fort Hays State, at 116, was tops in Kansas. Southwestern College, Winfield, was No. 149.<\/p>\n This category ranked universities and colleges by three sets of criteria: The magazine also had separate rankings for Best Colleges for Vocational Certificates in each of 12 areas and Best Two-Year Colleges for Adult Learners.<\/p>\n The Washington Monthly is supported by the Lumina Foundation, the Kresge Foundation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By UNIVERSITY RELATIONS Among the 100 U.S. colleges and universities judged by The Washington Monthly as the Best Four-Year Colleges for Adult Learners out of… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11722],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-press-releases"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=39805"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39805\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39806,"href":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39805\/revisions\/39806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=39805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=39805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=39805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\u2022 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Ease of transfer (FHSU had five of five points possible)
\n\u2022 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Flexibility of programs (seven of nine)
\n\u2022 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Services for adult students (six of six)
\n\u2022 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Percentage of students over the age of 25 (31 percent at FHSU)
\n\u2022 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Graduation rate of part-time students (80 percent)
\n\u2022 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0In-district tuition and fees
\n\u2022 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Percentage of credentials awarded as bachelor\u2019s degrees (97 percent at FHSU)<\/p>\n
\n\u2022 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Nine social mobility measures, including percentage of students graduating within eight years, a first-generation performance rank and a net price rank;
\n\u2022 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Two research criteria \u2013 total amount of money spent on research and the number of \u201cbachelor\u2019s recipients who go on to receive Ph.D.s, relative to college size\u201d;
\n\u2022 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0and five service criteria, two based on the number of alumni who serve in the Peace Corps, another on ROTC service, Work Study funds spent on service grants, AmeriCorps matching grants and voting engagement points.<\/p>\n