Best Private College Values of 2008
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Top Private College Values
Do you think you can't afford better for your kids (or yourself) than the state college down the road? You might be surprised. Recent changes in financial aid policies mean many elite institutions are now quite reasonable.
In some cases, private universities are a better deal than going to an in-state public school. Most Yale students, for example, only pay about $16,000/year. Unbelievable? See for yourself.
More About the Rankings
First: CaltechMore From Kiplinger's:
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California Institute of Technology
Rank: 1
Location: Pasadena, CA
Undergrad Enrollment: 864
Student/Faculty Ratio: 3
Admission Rate: 17%
Total Costs: $43,540
Aid From Grants: 99%
Avg. Debt at Grad.: $5,156
Next: Yale UniversityMore From Kiplinger's:
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AP
Yale University
Rank: 2
Location: New Haven, CT
Undergrad Enrollment: 5,333
Student/Faculty Ratio: 6
Admission Rate: 9%
Total Costs: $45,950
Aid From Grants: 92%
Avg. Debt at Grad.: $13,344
Next: Princeton UniversityMore From Kiplinger's:
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Charles Rex Arbogast, AP
Princeton University
Rank: 3
Location: Princeton, NJ
Undergrad Enrollment: 4,923
Student/Faculty Ratio: 5
Admission Rate: 10%
Total Costs: $47,375
Aid From Grants: 94%
Avg. Debt at Grad.: $4,865
Next: MITMore From Kiplinger's:
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Joe Raedle, Getty Images
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Rank: 4
Location: Cambridge, MA
Undergrad Enrollment: 4,127
Student/Faculty Ratio: 7
Admission Rate: 13%
Total Costs: $46,500
Aid From Grants: 87%
Avg. Debt at Grad.: $17,956
Next: Rice UniversityMore From Kiplinger's:
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AOL
Rice University
Rank: 5
Location: Houston, TX
Undergrad Enrollment: 3,049
Student/Faculty Ratio: 5
Admission Rate: 24%
Total Costs: $39,955
Aid From Grants: 77%
Avg. Debt at Grad.: $15,873
Next: Harvard UniversityMore From Kiplinger's:
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Getty Images
Harvard University
Rank: 6
Location: Cambridge, MA
Undergrad Enrollment: 6,715
Student/Faculty Ratio: 7
Admission Rate: 9%
Total Costs: $48,550
Aid From Grants: 92%
Avg. Debt at Grad.: $9,717
Next: Dartmouth CollegeMore From Kiplinger's:
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Getty Images
Dartmouth College
Rank: 7
Location: Hanover, NH
Undergrad Enrollment: 4,085
Student/Faculty Ratio: 8
Admission Rate: 16%
Total Costs: $46,895
Aid From Grants: 87%
Avg. Debt at Grad.: $21,561
Next: Duke UniversityMore From Kiplinger's:
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AP
Duke University
Rank: 8
Location: Durham, NC
Undergrad Enrollment: 6,330
Student/Faculty Ratio: 8
Admission Rate: 21%
Total Costs: $48,240
Aid From Grants: 86%
Avg. Debt at Grad.: $23,499
Next: Emory UniversityMore From Kiplinger's:
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AP
Emory University
Rank: 9
Location: Atlanta, GA
Undergrad Enrollment: 6,646
Student/Faculty Ratio: 7
Admission Rate: 32%
Total Costs: $45,556
Aid From Grants: 97%
Avg. Debt at Grad.: $24,272
Next: University of PennsylvaniaMore From Kiplinger's:
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Anne Chalfant / MCT
University of Pennsylvania
Rank: 10
Location: Philadelphia, PA
Undergrad Enrollment: 9,730
Student/Faculty Ratio: 7
Admission Rate: 18%
Total Costs: $23,544
Aid From Grants: 82%
Avg. Debt at Grad.: $20,927
Next: Notre Dame UniversityMore From Kiplinger's:
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Getty Images
Notre Dame University
Rank: 11
Location: South Bend, IN
Undergrad Enrollment: 8,352
Student/Faculty Ratio: 11
Admission Rate: 27%
Total Costs: $45,327
Aid From Grants: 73%
Avg. Debt at Grad.: $26,285
Next: Brown UniversityMore From Kiplinger's:
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Brown University
Rank: 12
Location: Providence, RI
Undergrad Enrollment: 6,010
Student/Faculty Ratio: 9
Admission Rate: 14%
Total Costs: $47,132
Aid From Grants: 84%
Avg. Debt at Grad.: $15,940
Next: Stanford UniversityMore From Kiplinger's:
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AP
Stanford University
Rank: 13
Location: Stanford, CA
Undergrad Enrollment: 6,422
Student/Faculty Ratio: 6
Admission Rate: 11%
Total Costs: $46,943
Aid From Grants: 87%
Avg. Debt at Grad.: $15,758
Next: VanderbiltMore From Kiplinger's:
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Vanderbilt
Vanderbilt
Rank: 14
Location: Nashville, TN
Undergrad Enrollment: 6,378
Student/Faculty Ratio: 9
Admission Rate: 34%
Total Costs: $47,864
Aid From Grants: 80%
Avg. Debt at Grad.: $19,429
Next: Columbia UniversityMore From Kiplinger's:
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AP
Columbia University
Rank: 15
Location: New York, NY
Undergrad Enrollment: 4,184
Student/Faculty Ratio: 5
Admission Rate: 10%
Total Costs: $47,918
Aid From Grants: 82%
Avg. Debt at Grad.: $16,080
Next: Georgetown UniversityMore From Kiplinger's:
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Karen Bleier, AFP / Getty Images
Georgetown University
Rank: 16
Location: Washington, DC
Undergrad Enrollment: 6,853
Student/Faculty Ratio: 11
Admission Rate: 22%
Total Costs: $48,716
Aid From Grants: 77%
Avg. Debt at Grad.: $24,816
Next: Northwestern UniversityMore From Kiplinger's:
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Chris Walker, Chicago Tribune / MCT
Northwestern University
Rank: 17
Location: Evanston, IL
Undergrad Enrollment: 8,153
Student/Faculty Ratio: 7
Admission Rate: 30%
Total Costs: $47,753
Aid From Grants: 85%
Avg. Debt at Grad.: $18,860
Next: Brandeis UniversityMore From Kiplinger's:
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Steven Senne, AP
Brandeis University
Rank: 18
Location: Waltham, MA
Undergrad Enrollment: 3,304
Student/Faculty Ratio: 8
Admission Rate: 36%
Total Costs: $46,793
Aid From Grants: 80%
Avg. Debt at Grad.: $19,892
Next: Tufts UniversityMore From Kiplinger's:
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Winslow Martin / Tufts University
Tufts University
Rank: 19
Location: Medford, MA
Undergrad Enrollment: 4,995
Student/Faculty Ratio: 7
Admission Rate: 27%
Total Costs: $47,660
Aid From Grants: 87%
Avg. Debt at Grad.: $14,200
Next: Cornell UniversityMore From Kiplinger's:
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AOL
Cornell University
Rank: 20
Location: Ithaca, NY
Undergrad Enrollment: 13,562
Student/Faculty Ratio: 9
Admission Rate: 25%
Total Costs: $46,691
Aid From Grants: 74%
Avg. Debt at Grad.: $18,938
Next: Most Expensive SchoolsMore From Kiplinger's:
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Most Expensive Colleges
These schools, the 10 most expensive in the country, averaged a tuition rise of 52% from 1999 to 2006 -- nearly triple the cost of living rise.
Click through our gallery to see which colleges in America charge the most tuition. (And this doesn't even include room & board, books ... )
Feature: Most Expensive Colleges
Next: Best Public CollegesMore From Kiplinger's:
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Best Public Colleges
Thinking public school, instead? The best public college may be one you've never heard of, with prices so low that it's a steal even for out-of-state students. See which schools deliver a first-rate education without breaking the bank.
Feature: Top Public Schools
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Recent Comments
LyonsResearch 02:26:59 AM Mar 26 2008
Christopher D Lyons Independent Researcher. tiptopwebsite.com/netspendreferral4216823698
Ciolajr 02:18:33 AM Mar 22 2008
Well, what do we have here, the losers forum? Fact is, eduction is the only true ticket out of poverty.
And, if a college education costs a lot of money, so what. Do what everyone else does, take out loans, grants and scholarships. College costs money because it's a big expense to run a college or univeristy. Most people spend more money on their color television sets than they do on their education.
Now, granted, there are students who do not complete their degrees because they are young and stupid. But, they always have the option of going back when they are older.
The lack of education in our society is exactly why our society is such a mess. Both parents have to work becasue the father can't pull down enough money to support his family. Why? Because he doesn't have a high enough paying job to do so. Why? Because he doesn't have the proper degree to get that high paying job to begin with.
The Bush Administration, starting with George Bush Senior has systematically gutted t
Love is 22984 11:49:03 PM Mar 21 2008
ALLEN710 11:25:09 AM Mar 21 2008
Report This! Half the freshman nationwide never graduate from college and most of them should have never be allowed to go to college because they are not capable to do the work. Yet we waste tax paper money on housing the "ignorant" and on teachers to teach them who in the end teach them nothing. Waste.
So what are you saying; that they should have never even tried?
OSTREDS 01:20:26 PM Mar 21 2008
Let's look at it this way....how much is the school making per year on just tuition..lets not even take into consideration room/board. A school like Syracuse...enrollment is about 30,000(estimate and a round #)...if tuition is $30,000 per year, the school is taking in $900,000,000 in tuition a year. And yet students still have to buy there own used books. Oh yea, that is only for 10 months, not including the long vacations.
School pricing is outrageous!!!!
DBoyne 12:35:28 PM Mar 21 2008
Calculating college tuition by the year is absurd. College is four years. The whole product/service is four years of tuition. If you are buying a new car you don't talk about what it will cost you for one year or for 1/4 of the car or 1/8 of the car. You are buying the whole car.
College should be free. Education is too important to NOT be free. We should be graduating three times as many medical doctors, twice as many engineers, triple the number of research scientists. We need to get back to the basics-----reading, writing and arithmetic.
PACE884 12:31:39 PM Mar 21 2008
The military already does pay people to go to college but they need to be patriot Americans to qualify.
DBoyne 12:12:55 PM Mar 21 2008
A college education should be free (or close to free). War is free (in a sense). We don't charge soldiers (tuition) to join the Army or Marines for the privilege of going to Iraq to kill Iraqis. No. Its free. We even pay them. College should be free. Risks? Yes, soldiers risk their lives. But students risk getting educated. What's the better risk?
Here's a strange twist: What would happen if we recruited and paid students to go off to college instead of recruiting and paying soldiers to go off to war? What would happen to our nation?
In 1967 I graduated from Quinnipiac University whose tuition when I started was $350 a semester for 5 courses. My first 1 1/2 years tuition I had saved up as a paperboy when I was 12 years old. There were no such things as "student loans"; they didn't exist. I was drafted into the Army and fought in Vietnam in 1969 to fight Communists. Right now as I sit here I am wearing a sweatshirt that says "Made in Vietnam". 58,000 Americas were killed there. We kill
ALLEN710 11:25:09 AM Mar 21 2008
Half the freshman nationwide never graduate from college and most of them should have never be allowed to go to college because they are not capable to do the work. Yet we waste tax paper money on housing the "ignorant" and on teachers to teach them who in the end teach them nothing. Waste.
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Saving for College: Basics
Saving for college gets easier the earlier you plan. Read more on student loans, 529 plans, education tax credits and other innovative ways to save.
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