Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine ranks Elon among the nation’s top 50 best values in private higher education and the #1 university in the total costs category. The 2009 ranking is published in the magazine’s February edition, and is the third consecutive top-50 ranking of Elon by Kiplinger’s.
Kiplinger’s says Elon and the other top-value schools “deliver the goods during tough times,” providing a “top-quality education at an affordable price – usually with generous financial aid.”
Elon’s total cost was more than $5,000 lower than #2 Baylor University and well over $10,000 lower than most other schools on the best value list.
Elon ranked #4 among the 50 schools for cost after merit-based financial aid is calculated, and #14 for cost after need-based aid is calculated.
Schools were judged on six quality measures and seven 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 Kiplinger’s ranking includes the nation’s most prestigious private universities. The top 10 universities in the overall best value ranking include Cal Tech, Yale, Princeton, Rice, Duke, Harvard, Dartmouth, MIT, Emory and Stanford. Elon ranks #29 overall in the quality rankings. More than 600 private universities were considered for the ranking.
Elon, Duke and Wake Forest universities are the only North Carolina schools on the list.
This year, Elon’s total tuition, room and board cost is 6.7 percent lower than the national private university average, and 17.4 percent lower than the average for other top Southern private master’s-level universities ranked by U.S. News & World Report:
Total costs at top-ranked Southern private universities
Rollins College – $45,300
Stetson University – $38,652
Mercer University – $37,150
Loyola University New Orleans – $33,064
Elon University – $31,846
National four-year private university average total cost – $34,132
(Source: College Board 2008 “Trends in College Pricing”)
To learn more about the Kiplinger’s ranking, click on the links at right…