Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine has ranked Elon among the nation’s top 50 best values in private higher education and the #2 university in total costs, a distinction published in the magazine’s December edition. The 2009-10 ranking is the fourth 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 such as Harvard, Rice, Dartmouth and Princeton, “are competitive enough to attract bright students and strong enough to keep them” and provides a “top-quality education at an affordable price – usually with generous financial aid.”
Elon was one of just eight universities with a total cost of under $40,000 a year. The university’s price tag of $34,625 came in $10,000 lower than most other schools on the best value list.
Elon ranks #28 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.
Elon ranked #12 among the 50 schools for cost after merit-based financial aid is calculated, and #26 for cost after need-based aid is calculated.
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 Kiplinger’s ranking includes the nation’s most prestigious private universities. The top 10 universities in the overall best value ranking are Cal Tech, Princeton, Yale, Rice, Harvard, Duke, Columbia, the University of Pennsylvania, Dartmouth and MIT.