VOLUME 46 NUMBER 9/10 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2014 Cover THE 2014 COLLEGE GUIDE Introduction: A Different Kind of College Ranking 19 America's Best-Bang-for-the-Buck Colleges 2014 23 by the Editors Our exclusive list of schools that help non-wealthy students attain marketable degrees at affordable prices. by Robert Kelchen Best-Bang-for-the-Buck Rankings America's Affordable Elite Colleges 2014 41 Which selective schools give high-achieving non-wealthy students a break in price, and which break their bank accounts? 26 30 by Robert Kelchen Affordable Elite Rankings America's Worst Colleges We set out to make a list of the poorest-performing colleges. What we found is that, while good schools are basically all alike, every crappy school is crappy in its own way. 32 36 by Ben Miller Held Accountable The kind of school that should fear Obama's college rankings. 40 by Matt Connolly and Phillip Longman Who's Afraid of College Rankings? Obama wants the federal government to disclose how much it actually costs to attend different colleges and universities, and what their success rates are. But to do so, he has to work around a powerful, little-known lobby and its Republican friends. 48 43 by Laura M. Colarusso and Jon Marcus Is the Master's Degree an Expensive Anachronism? For legions of new college graduates struggling to find good jobs in a weak labor market, "boot camps" are a faster and cheaper alternative to traditional grad school. 48 by Kevin Carey Why Are Harvard Grads Still Flocking to Wall Street? Students from elite colleges march off to jobs at the big banks and consulting firms less by choice than because of a rigged recruiting game that the schools themselves have helped to create. 53 by Amy J. Binder You Can't Ask That Enacted a generation ago in response to real abuses by some notorious medical researchers, so-called institutional review boards have morphed into entities that are stifling and distorting important research throughout academia. 54 TOC IMAGES: Matt Connolly; courtesy of General Assembly; Lou Jones/Lonely Planet Images/ Getty Images and Jennifer M. Ramos/Moment Open/Getty Images 61 by Zachary M. Schrag Ten Ways Colleges Work You Over What they don't want you to know about admissions and financial aid. by Stephen Burd and Rachel Fishman 66