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How Idaho Schools Do On New Federal College Score Card

In his State of the Union Tuesday night President Barack Obama said his administration would have a score card for every college in the nation. The online score card shows each school’s cost, graduation rate, amounts students borrow and how many default.

According to the score card, Idaho’s most expensive post-secondary option is Brown Mackie College in Boise. The for-profit school costs the average student $23,126 a year.

The most frugal option is College of Southern Idaho at $5,993 a year. The scorecard uses net cost, subtracting grants and scholarships from the attendance price.

University of Idaho students borrow the most to get their education. A typical U of I grad will have to pay $225.64 a month for ten years to pay students loans. Eastern Idaho Technical College students on the other hand would pay $66.02 a month, the smallest debt load in the state.

ITT Tech Boise grads are the most likely to default on their loans while Brigham Young University Idaho students have the lowest default rate. 

College of Idaho is doing the best when it comes to graduation rates. The liberal arts school gives degrees to 63.4 percent of students within six years of starting. But at the University of Phoenix in Meridian just 9.1 percent of students graduate in that same time frame.

Boise State, Lewis and Clark and Idaho State range from 29 to 26 percent on graduation rates. The U of I has a 50.9 percent graduation rate.

The data used in the new federal college score card is a couple of years old. For that reason you won’t find Idaho’s newest school, the College of Western Idaho, on the list.

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