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Five More Colleges Worth the Price
The recession doesn’t have to mean downgrading your higher-education ambitions. Here are an additional five great colleges that won’t break your bank—and they’re not even on the East Coast.
When The Daily Beast published a list of the Top 20 Best-Value Colleges earlier this week, many of the comments suggested we had omitted excellent universities in the Midwest, on the West Coast, and in Canada. In some cases, there was a good reason for the East Coast skew. In California, for instance, the ongoing state budget crisis has left higher-education-aid funding in question, putting many of its public universities at a disadvantage when it comes to financial-aid packages. That said, there are still plenty of bargains out there to consider this spring, and not all of them lie east of the Mississippi. Here are five more that will give you plenty of bang for your buck.
1. McGill University: This Montreal school should have been on our first list, and high up at that. For most American applicants, attending McGill will cost almost less than their local public university’s in-state tuition—even at the extra international student rate and with a stronger Canadian dollar. But, at $11,000, it is certainly cheaper than the vast majority of private choices stateside. Meanwhile, to get in, you have to have high grades and SAT scores. What enrolled students find is a top-notch research university located in a beloved European-style city filled with cultural opportunities. Other Canadian schools to cull for similar reasons: University of Toronto or Queen’s University.
2. University of Michigan: With its strong academics and superb faculty, Michigan has been long referred to as one of the “Public Ivies.” At 26,000 students, it’s also one of the nation’s most well-rounded universities: Candidates apply as much for its research prowess as the abundant school pride and nationally ranked football team. All but 1 percent of its admitted students ranked in the top quarter of their high-school graduating class. Once on campus, the student-to-faculty ratio is 15 to 1. For state residents, tuition is $11,000. If you’re from out of state, though, it’s not as good a value: You can expect to pay as much as $48,000 this fall—the equivalent of most private schools—and fewer than half of its students receive financial aid.
3. Reed College: For the typical Reedie, intellectual curiosity dominates. In its small classes, the faculty-student ratio is 10 to 1, and students don’t receive grade reports unless they wish to. Undergrads get to design their own majors, and Reed brags that it supplies more PhD programs than any other institution in the nation. Plus, its lush and green Portland, Oregon, home is often voted one of America’s most favorable places to live. At $40,000, tuition and fees for next fall are not bargain-basement, but about half of students get aid, and the school says 100% of demonstrated need is met.
4. The University of California system: An admissions slot at any of the UC schools is much sought-after, particularly among the thousands of in-state residents who apply each year in the nation’s most populous state. Perhaps the hardest to get into are Berkeley and UCLA, the system’s flagship institutions, whose highly selective admissions criteria rival the Ivy League or any private school. Tuition and fees vary campus to campus, but all are reasonable even for out-of-state applicants. At UC-San Diego, 96% of demonstrated need is met, and 90% of these financial-aid packages include grants or scholarships. The UC schools, in fact, educate more poor kids than their Ivy League counterparts, both in terms of absolute numbers and as a proportion of their student bodies. But that also puts them at a disadvantage when comparing financial-aid packages. A student whose family earns $90,000 would have to pay as little as $4,500 to go to Harvard, but would get little to no financial aid to help cover Berkeley's annual cost of $25,000.
5. University of Washington: Set on a bustling urban campus, UW is not the typical state school. Student engagement at this Seattle school is high, particularly when it comes to politics and being green. Getting accepted is also not a breeze: Nearly 90% of admitted students were in the top 10% of their high-school class, and the median high-school GPA is between 3.6 and 4.0. In-state tuition is a low $6,000, though it rises to $24,000 for non-Washington residents. UW’s Husky Promise guarantees that full tuition will be covered by grants or scholarships if you are a low- or lower middle-income student and a Washington resident.
Continue reading to see the original 20 value schools.
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Lloyd Grove is editor at large for The Daily Beast. He is also a frequent contributor to New York magazine and was a contributing editor for Condé Nast Portfolio. He wrote a gossip column for the New York Daily News from 2003 to 2006. Prior to that, he wrote the Reliable Source column for the Washington Post, where he spent 23 years covering politics, the media, and other subjects.
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Kathleen Kingsbury covers education for The Daily Beast. She also contributes to Time magazine, where she has covered business, health and education since 2005.
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Kathleen Kingsbury covers education for The Daily Beast. She also contributes to Time magazine, where she has covered business, health and education since 2005.
Thank you Ms. Kingsbury for admitting some of your oversights in the first post. The UC system is one of California's finest achievements and will prevail through current economic hardships. It is refreshing to see a journalist admit oversights based on comments from mere readers. Like it or not, this medium is the future of journalism.
Why is Reed always singled out above the other West coast liberal arts schools? Placing Reed above similar schools like Lewis & Clark College (also in Portland) and the University of Puget Sound (in Tacoma, WA) is in keeping with the shout outs to well known elite colleges of the East Coast. Reed is more widely recognized, but as far as I can see for no good reason. Faculty move back and forth between Reed and Lewis & Clark, as do students. Tuition at L&C is significantly cheaper, the faculty to student ratios are the same, and in addition, 69% of students get financial aid directly from the school. For for the physical sciences, studio arts, and international affairs, Lewis & Clark is an obvious choice above Reed. As a student who has taken classes at both places I would even go as far as to say folks at L&C are friendlier and less full of themselves. That said, judging a college is such an individual, situational thing so if you are reading these articles and you or your child is looking at schools, I encourage you to look at all sorts of things that are NOT on these lists and decide for yourself what is worth it.
It is interesting that you have UW on this list. It may be a good deal now, but the university administration is asking for the ability to raise its tuition to levels that "compare" with its peer institutions. That is not the kind of atmosphere I really want at my school. It is a shame that UW sees their students as more of an ATM than anything else.
Reed is famously mentioned in "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance", other than that, any college named after Meriwether Lewis is worth checking out.
Please. Once again flyover country is completely missed. What about Grinnell, Kenyon, Trinity in San Antonio, Rhodes in Tennessee? What about the aggressive offers made by Auburn and University of Alabama to top students?
Reed does not really belong on this list at all--they do not offer any merit aid, so the school is only a "value" if you can't afford to attend in the first place.
And the UC system is coasting on past glory--budget cuts and overenrollment make it almost impossible to graduate on time. If you have to attend for a fifth year to get a degree, the extra expense and opportunity cost of the fifth year more than erases any discount received in the first four years.
My daughter is in Douglass College at Rutgers Univ, a school that is never on these lists, and she has had great experiences and wonderful programs. There is a womens' leadership program; "global village" dorm program (which the womens' college - Douglass - alumnae association finances) that sends some of the students on expense paid foreign trips every year; grants for students to set up their own organizations. I have relatives and friends whose children went to some of the schools on the lists in these articles and they never got to participate in anything. It was very disappointing. The competition to get into those schools is so stiff and then you get in and the competition to get into any special program is stiff. Something to think about. You may be better off at a school known for "apathetic" students than going to a place that attracts world-beaters who take all the places in the special programs that were the reason you were attracted to the school in the first place.
I love Mcgill a great school it not only teachs you to think but how I don't need zen or any of the bs they are passing for education these day and makeing you pay for even if you don't use the classes.a concise learning experienced is what Mcgill has
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I would like to note that the following terminology culled straight from financial aid department lingo:
"demonstrated need is met",
"about half of students get aid",
"100% of demonstrated need is met"
means in most instances that students and their can take out private loans on top of federal loans to finance tuition and living costs.
In the case of a student attending a private university, or a state school out of state, this means taking on huge amounts of debt which will take decades to pay off.
For students coming from lower income or middle income backgrounds this can be debt for life. Students are signing up for this kind of huge debt in their late teens and early twenties, an age when many have not yet settled on a career path, even if they think they have.
Having your financial aid needs met with loans which will hamstring you for the rest of your life is hardly a bargain.
Higher education is big business in this country, and when students are told their "needs will be met" the only need getting met in most cases is the school's bank account and the lender's profit margin.
Undoubtedly, these are all great universities and institutions, but just as the housing crash has opened a dialogue regarding the unfair lending practices, and corporate greed which drove the mortgage fiasco, it is time that to open a dialogue regarding the practice of saddling college students and their families with huge loan debt, and guising this as financial aid, or "needs being met".
The University of Michigan is one of the most expensive public universities in the country, yet its undergraduates are taught mostly by teaching assistants. It's a great school for graduate students and medical students-- but its law school is seriously tarnished by conservative lawyers like Ann Coulter.
I am an American student at McGill and it really is the best value for your money. The education is phenomenal; it is strict and focused because it does not require any liberal arts criteria. It consistently ranks in the top 25 universities in the world, and last year cracked the top ten, outranking many Ivies. (http://www.topuniversities.com/university_rankings/results/2008/overall_ra nkings/top_100_universities/)
I highly recommend McGill and I have enjoyed my time here immensely.
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Reed! Definitely, a mixed bag. It definitely was not the place for my kid.
The positive -- close contact between students and teachers with high ration of professors to students; very favorable financial aid; rigorous, intellectually stimulating program. Emphasis on intellectuality. The first year program which is centered on the humanities (reading of the classics) is great. Those who graduate are required to write a senior paper and defend it which indicates a high level of achievement.
The negative -- despite the touchy-feely reputation, the school is very competitive, stressful and demanding. High dropout rate -- about one-third. The student body is one-dimensional (white, upper class and academic). Significant drug problem -- last year a woman student overdosed on heroin in the dorm (they put her on medical leave), and later in the year, a freshman overdosed and died of heroin. Too much drinking and drugs.
Portland is the most depressed city in the nation, and Reed has more than its share of depressed students. The campus is beautiful, but isolated. The weather is cold and rainy. The combination of the isolation, stress and drugs is a presciption for adolescents to fall off a cliff.
If your kid survives, graduation indicates a high level of academic achievement. However, if you kid is among the one-third that don't make it, just hope that you child will be able to recover from the shock of the experience. They read the classics at Reed, and somewhere it is written that its students either come back carrying their shields or being born upon them.
How was Stanford missed? It is just like Harvard in helping low-income students. By the way the UC system is highly flawed and over crowded. I chose Stanford over UC Berkeley due to Stanford's generous financial aid package and much more liberal (yes liberal) academic environment than UC Berkeley. UCLA is still great though.
Yes literarylioness, what is Stanford, chopped liver? Very curious it was omitted.
I go to McGIll, and I definitely agree that it is worth your money. It is a fantastic school with excellent research opportunities in an great location, but it is currently $18,000 a year, and increasing to $20,000 in the fall. Still, It is significantly less expensive than American schools of its caliber.
Thank you.
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