As the University of Connecticut gears up to raise tuition, school officials have presented UConn as a bargain when compared to other universities they handpicked.

When it comes time for UConn to compare itself, the list of comparison schools varies. We examined how the school’s price tag fares based on the different “peer institutions” and “comparison groups” they traditionally compare themselves to.

In a recent presentation on tuition planning, UConn was in the bottom half of three charts that ranked UConn and its “competitors” from highest to lowest in tuition and fees. Below is a page from that presentation that compared in-state tuition and fees:

The list of “competitors” in the tuition presentation differed from the list of the school’s “peer institutions” on the university’s website. When Trend CT compared UConn’s 2014-15 tuition and fees to tuition and fees at schools on this list, the university was the third-most expensive out of nine. The 2014-15 data is the most recent data available from the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics (NCES).

However, the lists in the UConn presentation and the peer institutions list above differed from yet another list — a “comparison group” used in an annual report by NCES that compares tuition as well as a number of other characteristics. It’s called the the Data Feedback Report generated by the NCES Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS). Here are the 2014 feedback reports for UConn, Central, Eastern, Southern and Western)

Trend CT sought to compare tuition at UConn as well as the CSCU schools among the respective groups the universities use for planning. For uniformity, we opted to use the NCES comparison groups, and we created the tool below.

How the comparison groups are chosen

The comparison groups in the Data Feedback reports may be chosen by the schools or selected by NCES if the schools don’t choose.

The selection process is both qualitative and quantitative, and the lists can include both currently similar schools and “aspirational” comparisons, according to leaders in the universities’ research departments.

While UConn’s peer institution list differed from its IPEDS comparison group, the IPEDS groups for the four CSCU schools matched the self-identified peer groups on the schools’ websites. Western didn’t have a comparison group on its website, but the list provided by Jerome Wilcox, the university’s director of institutional research and assessment, matched the IPEDS report. Eastern also didn’t have a list on its website, but Brian Lashley, Eastern’s assistant director of institutional research said the university compares itself to fellow members of the Council of Public and Liberal Arts Colleges, or “COPLAC,” which was also reflected in the IPEDS report.