With the average student with student loans now graduating with $35,200 in debt, paying for college will be a burden for millions for decades to come. Which is why selecting the right college often means weighing the long tail value of the degree over the pure prestige of the school’s brand.
For the FORBES 2015 Best Value Schools, we divided each school’s Quality Score (calculated specifically for our annual college ranking) by its published in-state tuition.
Service academies lead the top of the list, with the US Military, Naval and
Two service academies were supplanted this year for fourth and fifth place by Berea College in Berea, KY, and College of the Ozarks in Point Lookout, MO. The schools’ missions and practices make it clear why they make the list: both offer free tuition in exchange for students putting in hours of work for the university. The United States Coast Guard Academy and United States Merchant Marine Academy follow these schools, both dropping two slots in rank from 2014.
FORBES No. 1 Metric: Outcomes
America’s Top Colleges 2015
The silver lining in the college rankings race
Value doesn’t mean sacrificing a top school for a better price. Eight best-value schools make the top 100 list overall – the top three service academies, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, University of Florida, University of Maryland, College Park, University of Texas, Austin and University of Wisconsin, Madison. Just three of the best-value colleges are private: Berea, Brigham Young University in Utah and Brigham Young University-Idaho.
Some notable drop-offs: The University of Utah dropped ten spots this year, coming in at number 24. Texas A&M University, College Station, Louisiana State University and SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry are off the list, making way for CUNY, Hunter College, which enters the list this year at 18 – one of four CUNYs to make the cut-off.
Click here to see our full list of America's Top Colleges 2015
