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Top 100 Best Values in Public Colleges for 2012-2013
William FriersonProspective college students, are you looking to get the best education for your money? If so, you may be interested in learning the top 100 best values in public colleges.
Kiplinger’s Personal Finance has named the 100 best values in public colleges, ranking four-year schools that combine outstanding education with economic value. The University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill takes top honors, a spot it has held consistently since Kiplinger’s first analysis in 1998. SUNY Geneseo, a small honors college near Rochester, N.Y., places first for out-of-state value.
Why is UNC at Chapel Hill a perennial favorite? Credit its stellar academics, including a graduation rate (77%) that far exceeds the average rate for four-year public schools, a highly competitive admission rate (31%), and a total in-state cost of $18,609 a year. That’s a bargain compared with private schools, which run an average of $39,518 a year, according to the College Board, and within the range of the average for public schools, at $17,860. SUNY Geneseo tops the listing for out-of-state value, thanks to its reasonable total cost ($27,769 for out-of-staters, compared with an average of $30,911) and its solid academics.
Five California schools landed in the top 20 despite a 72% rise in tuition fees since 2007-08. UC institutions charge the five highest total amounts for in-state students (and the six highest total amounts for out-of-staters) among Kiplinger’s top 100 public schools. For UC schools, academics are key. Sixth-ranked UCLA ($26,888 in-state) admits just 25% of applicants, with 44% topping 700 on the math portion of the SATs and 22% exceeding 700 on the verbal portion. Fortunately, most students don’t pay the shocking sticker prices. UC schools offset their high cost with liberal financial aid.
Janet Bodnar, Editor of Kiplinger’s Personal Finance
“We applaud this year’s top 100 schools for their efforts to maintain academic standards while meeting the financial needs of their students,” said Janet Bodnar, editor of Kiplinger’s Personal Finance.
Kiplinger’s assesses quality according to a number of measurable standards, including the admission rate, the percentage of students who return for sophomore year, the student-faculty ratio and the four-year graduation rate. Cost criteria include low sticker prices, abundant financial aid and low average debt at graduation.
Kiplinger’s Top 10 Values in Public Colleges for 2012-13:
| Public Colleges |
Total Cost Per Year – In-state |
Total Cost Per Year – Out-of-state |
Avg. Debt at Grad. |
|
| 1. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
2. University of Virginia 3. University of Florida 4. College of William and Mary 5. University of Maryland, College Park 6. University of California, Los Angeles 7. New College of Florida 8. University of California, Berkeley 9. SUNY Geneseo 10. University of California, San Diego |
$18,609 22,645 16,593 23,950 19,931 26,888 16,181 29,049 18,519 26,632 |
$39,361 48,597 38,870 47,724 38,310 49,766 39,210 51,927 27,769 49,510
|
$17,525 20,951 16,841 20,835 24,180 18,814 14,172 17,116 21,000 19,936
|
The Rest of Kiplinger’s Top 100 Values in Public Colleges:
| 11. University of Michigan
12. Binghamton University (SUNY) 13. University of Wisconsin-Madison 14. University of California, Santa Barbara 15. University of Georgia 16. University of California, Irvine 17. University of Washington 18. Texas A&M University 19. Truman State University (Mo.) 20. James Madison University 21. North Carolina State University 22. Stony Brook University (SUNY) 23. University of California, Davis 24. College of New Jersey 25. University of Connecticut 26. Florida State University 27. University of Texas at Austin 28. Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University 29. University of Delaware 30. Georgia Institute of Technology 31. University of North Carolina School of the Arts 32. University of North Carolina at Wilmington 33. University at Buffalo (SUNY) 34. Clemson University 35. University of South Carolina 36. Appalachian State University (N.C.) 37. Ohio State University 38. University of Pittsburgh (Pa.) 39. Indiana University, Bloomington 40. California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo 41. St. Mary’s College of Maryland 42. University of Central Florida 43. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 44. SUNY New Paltz 45. University of Minnesota, Twin Cities 46. Michigan State University 47. Miami University (Ohio) 48. Pennsylvania State University at University Park 49. University of Iowa 50. Rutgers, State University of N.J., New Brunswick 51. Purdue University 52. University of North Carolina at Asheville 53. University of Mary Washington (Va.) 54. University of California, Santa Cruz 55. University of Alabama 56. George Mason University
|
57. University of South Florida
58. Colorado School of Mines 59. SUNY Oneonta 60. University of Texas at Dallas 61. Auburn University (Ala.) 62. University of Massachusetts-Amherst 63. University of Vermont 64. University of North Florida 65. University of Arkansas 66. University of Missouri-Columbia 67. Ramapo College of New Jersey 68. College of Charleston (S.C.) 69. University of Tennessee 70. University of Oklahoma 71. West Chester University of Pennsylvania 72. Salisbury University (Md.) 73. University of Wisconsin-La Crosse 74. Western Washington University 75. University of Nebraska-Lincoln 76. SUNY Cortland 77. San Diego State University (Cal.) 78. University of Maryland, Baltimore County 79. New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology 80. Purchase College (SUNY) 81. University at Albany (SUNY) 82. California State University, Long Beach 83. SUNY Brockport 84. Towson University 85. Iowa State University 86. University of Minnesota, Morris 87. Christopher Newport University (Va.) 88. University of Colorado at Boulder 89. Cal. State Polytechnic University, Pomona 90. Louisiana State University 91. University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma 92. University of California, Riverside 93. Oklahoma State University 94. Rutgers, State University of N.J., Newark 95. University of Northern Iowa 96. North Georgia College & State University 97. University of New Hampshire 98. University of Oregon 99. Massachusetts College of Art and Design 100. Missouri University of Science and Technology |
