DegreeChoices named Wofford College #1 among liberal arts colleges across the state and #10 in the country. This organization ranked the colleges based on their economic score.

The economic score is determined by first establishing the “earningsplus factor.” This factor is the median income of the specific college graduates’ income minus the state’s weighted average of college graduates’ income.

For example, Wofford’s median income is $67,530. This is $23,245 more than the state’s weighted average of $44,285, making the difference of $23,245 the earningsplus factor.

This lead Wofford’s economic score to be a 1.50, compared to Claremont McKenna College’s economic score of 0.87, who scored first on the list. For comparison, the University of South Carolina Upstate, as listed by College Simply, averages an income of $39,300 10 years after enrolling at USCU.

The payback rate is 2.3 years, due to Wofford’s net cost of $25,674 after scholarships are applied. This can make the tuition and fees of $66,450 seem less daunting.

“Students graduating from Furman can expect to repay in 4.3 years based on their future earnings and the same cohort and state comparisons,” said Carly Brown, university relations director for DegreeChoices.

Furman University was not present on the list.

Wofford College was also the only South Carolina college listed in the top 20 for the nation.

In other college rankings, Wofford College was listed in U.S. News, out of 210 national liberal arts colleges, as tied for #70 generally, #49 for best undergraduate teaching and #58 for best valued schools.

“For each ranking, the sum of weighted, normalized values across 17 indicators of academic quality determine each school’s overall score and, by extension, its overall rank,” U.S. News explained.