How we ranked the best university values

Come up with our best value, we offer a four-year to nearly 1,200 public and private schools Peterson data start, then add our own report. We narrow the list of measures based on academic quality. We then use the sorting costs and financial assistance measures to each school. Quality standards 55% of total points, and the cost of the standard 45%. For 2015, for the first time, we have included a list of 300 best combination of value private liberal arts colleges, private universities and public universities are stacked against each other to show how each of the three schools in the top category. We also have our top 100 ranking of private colleges and universities in the top 100 liberal arts colleges and public universities in the top 100.

Competition

In this category, we include acceptance rate (the percentage of enrollment provided the applicant) and yield (those who recruit admitted the percentage of out students). The first number indicates that the selectivity of the school, the second shows its ability to compete with other schools accepted applicants. We also believe that the proportion of newborn who is SAT or ACT scores because of the high academic achievements to enhance the atmosphere.

Graduation rate

In terms of quality, our rankings give the most weight four-year graduation rate reward schools help students in undergraduate degree within the time and budget range.

Academic support

Freshman retention rate for students who show a Samurai return rate R sophomore students how success is an indication on their tracks. Each teacher, the average student per faculty member of the university students is how to fulfill another measure of its academic mission.

Costs and financial aid

In order to evaluate the cost, we give the most points to the lowest total cost of schools have (tuition, fees, room and board, and books). In the combined ranking, the state of the external costs of public schools that we use to provide a private apples comparison of apples. In the public school rankings, ranks countries according to the school outside of our country cost rankings, and calculate the cost of the state.

Then we add point reduction in school aid through price-based demand (grants but not loans) as well as those in need of assistance through non-Based knock down prices. Some schools failed to cover the expected familyContribution, the gap between the aid they provide. We reward and meet the needs of the highest proportion of schools, on the basis of who we are to the point of receiving non-need-based aid percentage of students do not need school.

student debt

If the school retained the average graduate debt worth extra points, we have the appropriate reward. We also factor in the percentage of students who borrow. The lower the number, the better the results.

add and remove

our rankings broad-based curriculum focused on the traditional four-year schools, student apartments. This year, we have included in the City School, Chengdu University of Technology which has introduced campus student apartments, in recent years, ranking New York (CUNY) system in our public schools, Y’s. Special offer

on a great value, but the focus is narrow academic programs, such as

school military service academies, are excluded. For our public university rankings, a Cornell University, the most famous of the Ivy League, is another exception. It has three public land-grant schools, each charge state tuition and fees at $ 31,000 per year; in part because most schools at Cornell University is a private endowed university, public schools have been omitted from the list.

school, we can not rank

to provide the most accurate and complete data in our continuous efforts, we have excluded the school does not accurately calculate their rankings with all the required data provide us. Here is the school, listed in alphabetical order:

Allegheny College, Meadville, PA

Bard College, Annandale on Hudson, NY
Baylor University, Waco, Texas,
California. Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo
The Catholic University of America in Washington, DC
Columbia University, New York, NY
Concordia College, Moorhead, Minnesota.
Denison University, Granville, Ohio,
Ithaca College, Ithaca, NY
Moravian College in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts.
Shimer College, in Chicago, Illinois.
Simmons College, Boston, Massachusetts.
WagnerCollege, Staten Island, New York
Worcester Polytechnic Institute, in Worcester, Massachusetts.

Mark A. Wojno, Kettering Pitsker and David Kuchler help compile the data .