MIAMI, Fla. — The financial advice website WalletHub listed Winona State as a quality bargain. The university was rated as the Number 2 public university in Minnesota and the only MinnState System campus in the the top 10. Unlike some ranking services with sloppy if not sleazy polling, WalletHub evaluates colleges on data from the sources like the National Center for Education Statistics, Council for Community and Economic Research, the U.S. Department of Education, COLLEGEdata and PayScale.
WalletHub profile
The company was founded in Miami in 2013 as a resource for personal financial advisors. Owned by Evolution Finance Inc. Headed by Odyssseas Papadimitriou, a former CapitalOne executive. The WalletHub site carries advertising to finance its proprietary tools but is explicit that advertisers do not sway its rankings. Among weighed criteria for college rankings:
Student quality (25 points): Admission rate, admission test scores, how many students in top 10% of their high school class.
Cost and financing (20): Net cost, student job availability, student-loan debt.
Faculty quality (10): Student-faculty ratios, salaries, class size, full-time vs. adjuncts.
Campus safety (5). Arrests.
Campus experience (5): Share of foreign students, on-campus domiciling, study-aboard programs, racial diversity.
Educational outcomes (15): Reteniton rate, graduation rate.
‘Career outcomes (15): Job placement, salaries after graduation, student loan debt.