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Five More Colleges Worth the Price
7. University of Virginia: UVA is one of the toughest public universities to get into in the nation. Its applicants have top SAT scores and an average GPA of 4.05. Once there, students can relish its beautiful Charlottesville setting, superb faculty, great sports teams, and even good state-school parties. For Virginia residents, the cost per year is low—just $8,500 in 2007-2008. Out-of-state tuition, however, skyrockets to nearly $28,000. Luckily UVA is a rare state university with a large endowment, so it covers 100 percent of demonstrated need, largely through grants.
8. California Institute of Technology: Caltech long ago established its academic bona fides—the Pasadena mecca for tech-geeks last year admitted just 17 percent of applicants. On campus, the student-faculty ratio is 3-to-1. But Caltech also meets 100 percent of demonstrated need for every aid recipient, and two-thirds of students receive some type of university aid, either in the form of merit scholarships or grants.
9. United States Naval Academy: Attending any U.S. military academy is free. In fact, starting in the first year, students are paid a monthly stipend. Of course, much of that amount goes to paying for books, uniforms, and services, but at the Naval Academy, anything left over can be socked away in the Midshipmen Investment Fund, which invests in mutual funds. Getting in is tough&mdahs;a congressional nomination is needed. After graduation, however, the sky’s the limit when it comes to career options—that is, once you fulfill your five-year military commitment.
10. Brigham Young University: It’s hard to find a better bargain than BYU. Annual tuition is less than $4,000 to attend classes on the school’s pristine Provo, Utah, campus. Top firms regularly recruit from BYU and its graduates attend some of the best MBA, medical, and law programs in the country. One catch: If you aren’t a Mormon, you’ll pay more to attend BYU. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints supports the school financially through the tithing of its members around the world. The church’s deep pockets have bankrolled world-class facilities, faculty, and athletic teams.
11. College of William & Mary: As a public institution&mdashyes, William & Mary is a state school—tuition is low, just over $5,000 a year for Virginia residents. But only the cream of crop in high-school seniors will roam this idyllic campus come fall. William & Mary accepts just 34 percent of applicants, and more than three-quarters of freshmen were in the top 10 percent of their graduating class. Alums go on to first-tier graduate programs and prestigious careers—comedian Jon Stewart, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and five U.S. presidents count among their numbers.
12. Webb Institute: Sometimes it pays to specialize. Funded by a 19th-century naval architect, tuition is free at the Webb Institute, one of the best schools on earth if you’re interested in learning how to build ships. Located on New York's Long Island, the program is an intense curriculum of math and science with a student-faculty ratio of 12 to 1. Students pay only living expenses, which federal grants and loans often cover.
13. Pomona College: Nearly 90 percent of Pomona’s freshmen were in the top 10th percentile of their high-school class. To bring the best of the best to its Southern California campus, Pomona guarantees 100 percent of need is met. This promise extends even to international students—a rare inclusion—in order to maintain diversity.
14. The SUNY system: New York state’s university system attracts some of the brightest students in the nation, and even out-of-state costs, at about $22,000, are low compared to similar state institutions. SUNY-Binghamton and SUNY-Geneseo especially stand out. More than 80 percent of financial need is met by both schools, and students on average leave the system with less than $20,000 in debt. This affordability may soon change, though—students throughout the state marched in protest late last semester when it was announced that New York would cut more than a quarter of its higher-education budget.
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Gaming the Financial-Aid System
Kathleen Kingsbury covers education for The Daily Beast. She also contributes to Time magazine, where she has covered business, health and education since 2005.
genoftheheart
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.
snapdragon
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.
holmgren
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.
genoftheheart
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.
Gussie
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.
KarenF444
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.
steff47
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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troublemaker
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".
oldgaffer
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.
embely
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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nodrama
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.
literarylioness
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.
QueenCeleste
Yes literarylioness, what is Stanford, chopped liver? Very curious it was omitted.
casenb
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.
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