Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine has ranked Elon among the nation’s top 50 best values in private higher education and the #9 university in lowest total costs, a distinction published in the magazine’s December edition. The 2010-11 ranking is the fifth consecutive top-50 placement of Elon by Kiplinger’s.
Kiplinger’s says Elon and the other top-value schools, a list that includes the nation’s most prestigious private universities, “deliver a high-quality education at an affordable price.”
Elon was one of just nine universities with a total cost of under $37,000 a year, which is $10,000-$15,000 lower than most other schools on the best value list.
Elon ranks #35 overall in the quality rankings with more than 600 private universities considered for the list. Elon, Duke and Wake Forest universities are the only North Carolina schools on the private universities list. Davidson College is the only North Carolina school on the private liberal arts colleges list.
Schools were judged on quality and financial measures, with quality of academic programs counting for two-thirds of the total score. Factors include student SAT scores, student-faculty ratio, graduation rates, total costs, financial aid and average student debt. The ranking rewards high quality schools with the lowest net cost to families after financial aid is calculated.
The Kiplinger’s ranking includes the nation’s most prestigious private universities. The top 10 universities in the overall best value ranking are Princeton, Yale, Cal Tech, Rice, Duke, Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania, Columbia, Brown and Dartmouth.