2023 Best Value Colleges for Library & Information Science (Income $0-$30k) in the New England Region

When pursuing a degree in today’s world, students have many different options to choose from. At College Factual, we’re committed to helping you make that decision by providing information such as that found in our “Best Value Library Science Schools in the New England Region For Those Making $0-$30k” ranking.

In 2020-2021, 5,950 people earned their degree in library and information science, making the major the 121st most popular in the United States. In 2019-2020, library and information science graduates who were awarded their degree in 2017-2019, earned an average of $43,949 and had an average of $27,472 in loans still to pay off.

Across the New England region, there were 368 library and information science graduates with average earnings and debt of $33,275 and $22,333 respectively.

For this year’s “Best Value Library Science Schools in the New England Region For Those Making $0-$30k” ranking, we looked at 2 colleges that offer a degree in library and information science. This ranking identifies schools with high-quality library and information science programs that also have a lower cost than schools of similar quality.

When determining these rankings, we looked at things such as overall quality of the library and information science program at the school and the cost to attend the school once aid has been awarded. See our ranking methodology to learn more.

More Ways to Rank Library & Information Science Schools

Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we’ve developed the “Best Value Library Science Schools in the New England Region For Those Making $0-$30k” ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.

In addition to our rankings, you can take two colleges and compare them based on the criteria that matters most to you in our unique tool, College Combat. When you have some time, check it out - you may want to bookmark the link so you don’t forget it.

Best Value Library Science Schools in the New England Region For Those Making $0-$30k

The following schools top our list of the Best Best Value Library Science Schools in the New England Region For Those Making $0-$30k.

Top 2 Best Value Colleges for Library & Information Science (Income $0-$30k) in the New England Region

1

University of Rhode Island
Kingston, Rhode Island

#2 in overall quality

$12,175 Average Net Price

$44,926 Average Early-Career Earnings

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend University of Rhode Island. The school came in at #1 for the Best Value Library Science Schools in the New England Region For Those Making $0-$30k. URI is a fairly large public school situated in Kingston, Rhode Island. It awarded 46 ’s library science degrees in 2020-2021.

URI not only placed well in this ranking. It is also #2 on our “Best Library & Information Science Schools in the New England Region” list. The yearly cost to attend URI is $12,175 for new england region library science students whose families make $0-$30k.

The school has an excellent freshman retention rate of 85%, which means students like the school well enough to return for a second year. The school has an impressive undergrad student loan default rate. It’s only 4.3%, which is much lower than the national rate of 10.1%.

Read full report on Library & Information Science at URI

2

Simmons University
Boston, Massachusetts

#1 in overall quality

$21,080 Average Net Price

$55,531 Average Early-Career Earnings

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend Simmons University. It ranked #2 on our 2023 Best Value Library Science Schools in the New England Region For Those Making $0-$30k list. Located in Boston, Massachusetts, this medium-sized private not-for-profit school awarded 273 degrees to qualified ’s library science students in 2020-2021.

Simmons also made our “Best Library & Information Science Schools in the New England Region” list, coming in at #1. It costs about $21,080 for New England Region Library Science students whose families make $0-$30k per year to attend Simmons.

The low undergrad student loan default rate of 1.4% is a good sign that students have an easier time paying off their loans than they might at other schools. For comparison, the national default rate is 10.1%. The undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio of 9 to 1 is a sign that students will have more opportunities to engage with their professors one-on-one.

Read full report on Library & Information Science at Simmons University

• Best Value Colleges for Library & Information Science (Income $0-$30k)

Notes and References

References

• The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), a branch of the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) serves as the core of our data about colleges.
• Some other college data, including much of the graduate earnings data, comes from the U.S. Department of Education’s (College Scorecard).
• Information about the national average student loan default rate is from the U.S. Department of Education and refers to data about the 2016 borrower cohort tracking period for which the cohort default rate (CDR) was 10.1%.

Read more about our data sources and methodologies

Footnotes

• *Average salary, average net price, and average tuition and fees are for the top schools only.
• Some schools otherwise deserving of recognition may have been removed from this ranking in the event that new data identified post-publication warranted it, or at the request of the school.

Credits

• Credit for the banner image above goes to Diliff.