Posted on 03/12/2015 3:27:05 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
The factors that go into selecting a college are as plentiful and diverse as the students who enroll at universities each fall. Consumers Digest realizes that the cost of attending college shouldn’t be the only factor that a student considers when he/she selects an academic institution, but we believe that it is an important consideration for the many families who struggle to keep pace with the escalating price of higher education.
In determining our selections for the best values among colleges and universities, Consumers Digest narrowed the fields of public, private and liberal-arts colleges and universities through a preliminary evaluation of academic excellence by using CollegeBoard.com to determine the top 212 public, 81 private and 101 private liberal-arts colleges. Of these, 356 institutions supplied the necessary data.
We then applied to each college or university a formula that balanced students’ academic excellence (standardized test scores, high-school rank and the grade-point average of entering freshmen) with the quality of education offered (as indicated by the student-to-faculty ratio, the 4-year graduation rate, the 6-year graduation rate, the student retention rate and the percentage of faculty who hold a doctorate or terminal degree) to compile a Value Index score for each institution. (Certain categories were weighted more heavily than others.)
That score and the estimated cost of attending each college for the 2008-2009 academic year (tuition, fees, and room and board) were then applied to a formula to determine which schools offered the most academic value per dollar. We recognize the value of financial aid, but we didn’t factor it into our formula due to the inconsistencies by which colleges distribute aid.
Because our point-value system didn’t correlate across different segments from our three school groupings, value-index numbers from one school grouping, such as that for Public Colleges and Universities, can’t be compared with value-index numbers from our other two school groupings.
Total Cost is the sum of maximum annual tuition, fees, and room and board. For public universities, only nonresident tuition figures were considered, because attending a public school in your state of residence will almost always provide the best value for your education dollar. Military institutions and extremely specialized colleges that don’t charge tuition weren’t considered for this chart.
Interesting that Rice snuk in there with the Ivys.
Probably based on the outsized salary of Josh Earnest, eh?
Nope.
The total list price for in-state New Mexico residents to go to New Mexico Tech is $13,946 for the 2013/2014 academic year. Most students pay less than $10000 for a year.
One of the best engineering college values in the country. Doesn’t make many lists because it is tiny and far from “civilization,” but a top notch school, nonetheless.
I’m sure.
I saw another of these lists where N. Dakota School of Mines was at the top.
Pick the best college in the area that you want to live. Employer familiarity of the local colleges is very important.
I earned a BS degree in Chemical Engineering from Cornell University. Then I tried to find a job in the Minneapolis area.
Had trouble getting interviews. The ones I got didn’t go well: Some employers confused Cornell University (in NY) with Cornell College (a small liberal arts college in Iowa). Others based their interview on courses offered at the University of Minnesota.
Looked for 10 months. Nothing. Moved out east, had several interviews in the second week, a job offer in the third, and started work in Fuel Cells on the fourth week.
There are a lot of great mining schools, but they don’t do well with humanities and they don’t grade on a curve. Lol
I’m 5 on one list, my daughter 7 on a different list. Cool!
I know it’s difficult to factor in financial aid, but in terms of value, it invalidates their methology.
Yep, there are some great schools that grant FULL or even half tuition to EVERY STUDENT.
New York’s Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, commonly referred to simply as Cooper Union comes to mind.
It is a great engineering and technology school built on a radical new model of American higher education based on founder Peter Cooper’s fundamental belief that an education “equal to the best technology schools [then] established”should be accessible to those who qualify, independent of their race, religion, sex, wealth or social status, and should be “open and free to all”.
The Cooper Union since its founding in 1859, granted each admitted student a full-tuition scholarship; as of April 23, 2013, due to financial concerns, that policy has been eliminated beginning with the class entering in the Fall of 2014,although every incoming student receives at the very least a fifty-percent merit scholarship.
Yet, I don’t see that school on the list.
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