SOUTH LOOP — A little-known private university in the South Loop has won praise for sending its students out into the world with the least amount of debt.
East-West University, at 816 S. Michigan Ave., came in second to the City University of New York's Jamaica campus in a national study of student debt conducted by the Student Loan Project of the Institute for College Access & Success, based in Oakland, Calif., and published by Credit.com earlier this month.
The average East-West graduate last spring amassed $4,100 in student debt. The average graduate at schools nationwide had $28,400 in debt.
It's no accident, said Cesar Campos, East-West director of financial aid.
"The mission of the institution is pretty simple," said Campos. "We serve the underserved, the students. We help families get their kids through college with the least amount of debt possible."
East-West was founded in 1980 as a private, non-profit, four-year college with a "global, multicultural orientation." Campos said it aspires to compete with the University of Illinois at Chicago, DePaul University and Robert Morris, as well as Columbia College, which has a number of buildings in the immediate South Loop area occupied by East-West.
"The quality of the education has to be comparable," Campos said. "The level of education should be as good or better" than at those schools.
The university has about 700 or 800 students a quarter, with tuition just over $6,000 a quarter, according to Campos. Enrollment peaked at 1,100 four years ago, not coincidentally at the depths of the Great Recession. It typically graduates about 100 students each spring.
A fully accredited university, its specialties are business, biology, electronics and engineering, Campos said, adding, "The faculty is good, and I think they deliver a high-quality education."
"We're also an open-enrollment institution," said university spokesman Joel Inwood. That means that, if you have a high school diploma, you're accepted. "There are very few of them left in the state," Inwood added.
Campos said he's not concerned with potential competition from Mayor Rahm Emanuel's plan to offer free tuition to the City Colleges for Chicago Public Schools graduates with a B average.
"I think it's an excellent idea," he said, "as long as they're willing to continue. ... I want them to not stop at the associate level" with just two years of college.
Inwood said the school's graduation rate and transfer rate are about the same at one-third, comparable to competing niche schools like Chicago State and Northeastern Illinois University.
The news from the Student Loan Project study counters an earlier report citing East-West grads for a high default rate on student loans, which critics said at the time was based on old data. East-West hopes making the list of lowest amassed student debt does much to repair the school's image.
If East-West turns away no eligible students, does it have a maximum enrollment? "We would like to find that out," Campos said.
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