The Formula:
45% COST FACTORS | 55% QUALITY FACTORS
To come up with our best values for 2012�13, we start
with data on nearly 600 public four-year schools provided by
Peterson's, then add our own reporting. We narrow the list to about
130 schools, based on measures of academic quality. We then rank
each school based on cost and financial aid. Quality accounts for
55%, and cost accounts for 45%.
SEE OUR SLIDE SHOW:
10 Best Values in Public Colleges, 2013
Cost and Financial Aid: 35%
To evaluate costs, we look at tuition, fees, room and board, and
books. We give the most points to schools with the lowest
in-state total cost
and equal points to schools that reduce the price through grants
(shown as cost
after need-based aid
) and those that reduce the price through non-need-based aid. We
reward schools with the highest percentage of need met, and we give
points up to the same maximum to schools based on the percentage of
students without need who receive non-need-based aid. We calculate
out-of-state cost
separately and use the same criteria to assign an out-of-state
rank.
Student Indebtedness: 10%
Schools that keep down
average debt at graduation
deserve extra points, and we reward them accordingly. We also
factor in the percentage of students who borrow. The lower the
number, the better the score.
Competitiveness: 22.5%
In this category, we include admission rate (the percentage of
applicants offered admission) and yield (the percentage of students
who enroll out of those admitted). The first number demonstrates
the selectivity of the school, and the second shows its ability to
compete with other schools for accepted applicants. We also
consider the percentage of incoming freshmen who are
high scorers on SAT or ACT
, because high achievers enhance the academic atmosphere.
Graduation Rates: 18.75%
Our rankings give maximum weight to the
four-year graduation rate
to reward colleges that help students get undergraduate degrees on
time and within budget. We also give points-albeit half as many-to
colleges with a strong showing of students who collect their
degrees in six years.
Academic Support: 13.75%
Freshman retention rate is the percentage of students who return
for their sophomore year, an indication of how successful the
college is in keeping them on track.
Students per faculty
measures whether the college has the personnel to fulfill its
academic mission.
Our rankings focus on traditional four-year schools with
broad-based curricula. Schools that offer great value but focus on
special or narrow academic programs, such as the military service
academies, are excluded. Cornell University, best known as a member
of the Ivy League, is another exception. Four of Cornell's colleges
are part of the privately endowed university, which we consider a
private institution. But three of Cornell's undergraduate colleges
are land-grant state schools that cost much less-about $27,000 a
year for tuition and fees in-state.
Jonny Jaldin helped compile this data.
This article first appeared in
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