Universities play dirty games with US News and others, by deliberately UNDERESTIMATING the cost of tuition. For example, last month I contacted Texas Tech at Rawls, being impressed by their #33 ranking and cost below $20k. That's a false number - a bait. Here's what they wrote to me, I'm quoting:
Rawls: "The program is 27,000-30,000."
Me: "I thought the cost was around $383 per credit, so $16k for 42 credits? That's what's listed at the US News <URL>. It's a significant difference."
Rawls: "That does not include fees or textbooks. You can go to our website to get the exact number but it normally falls between 27,000 and 30,000."
Aside from an almost 100% times higher price tag than advertised, why would I go to a lying university that's wasting time of people like me and everyone else on this forum? And why would I go to some Rawls when for that price tag I can go to Boston or UMass? Ridiculous and outrageous.
They are not the only one's, by the way. West Texas A&M University is somewhat similar - told me on the phone there will be some automatic scholarship to reduce the tuition, then I spoke to them again saying very confused by their online numbers and ways to calculate, so they finally admitted it's $540 per credit, for a minimum of 37 credits that's required, instead of $410 that US News lists for them.
I also contacted US News about these discrepancies, but they told me they can't change it, it's self-reported by universities and only they can change it. Ridiculous policy by US News which doesn't want to burden itself with verifications and data integrity checks.
So I don't believe the numbers in US News or anywhere, especially Texas :-) -- only clear numbers on the websites of the MBA programs, coupled with a phone conversation with that university to affirm that their website is current and the number is still correct.
Rawls is lying in US News - it costs $30k to attend its online MBA. I have emails from them admitting this stunning info to me.
Same for West Texas A&M for example - instead of the $410 per credit they report to US News they are actually at $540.
Same with a few other schools. Basically, several of them are basically lying to US News, and when I contacted US News about it, they said they won't change these false numbers, since only the universities that report them can do that. Weird catch 22 - just because US News doesn't want the headache and expense of dealing with verification of data.
Rawls: "The program is 27,000-30,000."
Me: "I thought the cost was around $383 per credit, so $16k for 42 credits? That's what's listed at the US News <URL>. It's a significant difference."
Rawls: "That does not include fees or textbooks. You can go to our website to get the exact number but it normally falls between 27,000 and 30,000."
Aside from an almost 100% times higher price tag than advertised, why would I go to a lying university that's wasting time of people like me and everyone else on this forum? And why would I go to some Rawls when for that price tag I can go to Boston or UMass? Ridiculous and outrageous.
They are not the only one's, by the way. West Texas A&M University is somewhat similar - told me on the phone there will be some automatic scholarship to reduce the tuition, then I spoke to them again saying very confused by their online numbers and ways to calculate, so they finally admitted it's $540 per credit, for a minimum of 37 credits that's required, instead of $410 that US News lists for them.
I also contacted US News about these discrepancies, but they told me they can't change it, it's self-reported by universities and only they can change it. Ridiculous policy by US News which doesn't want to burden itself with verifications and data integrity checks.
So I don't believe the numbers in US News or anywhere, especially Texas :-) -- only clear numbers on the websites of the MBA programs, coupled with a phone conversation with that university to affirm that their website is current and the number is still correct.
Rawls is lying in US News - it costs $30k to attend its online MBA. I have emails from them admitting this stunning info to me.
Same for West Texas A&M for example - instead of the $410 per credit they report to US News they are actually at $540.
Same with a few other schools. Basically, several of them are basically lying to US News, and when I contacted US News about it, they said they won't change these false numbers, since only the universities that report them can do that. Weird catch 22 - just because US News doesn't want the headache and expense of dealing with verification of data.
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