Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine has ranked Elon among the nation’s top 50 best values in private higher education.
Kiplinger’s ranks Elon the #12 university in lowest total costs, a distinction published in the magazine’s December edition. The 2011-12 ranking is the sixth 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 12 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 #34 overall in the quality rankings with more than 600 private universities considered for the list. Elon, Duke and Wake Forest universities are the only schools in North Carolina or South Carolina on the private universities list. Davidson College is the only North Carolina school on the private liberal arts colleges list.
Kiplinger’s assesses quality according to measurable standards, including the percentage of students who are admitted out of those who applied, the test scores of incoming freshmen, the ratio of students to faculty members, and the four- and five-year graduation rates.
This year, Kiplinger adjusted its criteria to better reflect the issues affecting families. Now, the rankings give more weight to the four-year graduation rate—a measure of the college’s ability to deliver academic support and of the overall cost to families–and to colleges that keep student debt down.
“The institutions on Kiplinger’s rankings for best value in private colleges represent schools that provide high-quality academics as well as affordable cost even in these tough times,” said Jane Bennett Clark, Senior Associate Editor for Kiplinger’s Personal Finance.
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, Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania, Duke, Columbia, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford.