The Lake Forest College network
A video-game skill tree: every level up is one more thing a school does better.
IL
5 colleges with a similar mix of majors, each also teaching business & management, biological & biomedical sciences, and social sciences, are the same or better on all of yield, graduation rate, cost. That's fewer than 20: few schools like this one beat it on every count.
See it as a table
| College | Size | Yield | Graduation rate | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lake Forest College (your pick) | 1,814 | 14% | 78% | $71,350 |
| Gustavus Adolphus College | 1,905about the same size | 15%same | 77%same | $67,680same |
| Trinity University | 2,5181.4× as many undergrads | 20%better | 84%better | $68,224same |
| Rhodes College | 1,838about the same size | 12%same | 85%better | $71,546same |
| Saint Anselm College | 2,0941.2× as many undergrads | 16%same | 80%same | $67,890same |
| The University of the South | 1,644about the same size | 18%better | 80%same | $71,986same |
From IPEDS, academic year 2024-25 (sticker prices from the year before where this year's are not out yet). “Similar mix of majors” means close on the degrees students finish, subject by subject, and on how many. Only colleges a student choosing Lake Forest College would also weigh are counted: each must award at least 1% of its bachelor's degrees in every one of Lake Forest College's 3 largest subjects; a special-focus school (a conservatory, art school, seminary, or the like) is compared only with schools of the same focus; and colleges with a strong religious mission are compared only with each other. Yield and graduation rate count as the same when they are less than 4 points apart; sticker price when it is within 10%. Better cost means cheaper. Sticker price is before financial aid, and for public colleges is the average of the in-state and out-of-state prices.