MSN Money, June 23, 2006, Friday

MSN MoneyJune 23, 2006, Friday
The Basics
The 100 best values in public colleges
http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/CollegeandFamily/Cutcollegecosts/P62761.asp

Even with tuition climbing at double-digit rates, there are deals to be had. Kiplinger's survey shines a spotlight on schools that combine great academics with reasonable costs.
By Brian Knestout, Kiplinger
Between registering for classes, making new friends, navigating an unfamiliar campus and, oh, yes, studying, new college students have plenty of worries. The prospect of graduating with a crushing debt shouldn't be one of them.
But considering the way tuition charges have rocketed in the past year, a little worry isn't just prudent, it's unavoidable. Tuitions at public colleges are 12.5% higher, on average, this year than they were a year ago, according to the American Association of State Colleges and Universities. That's on top of the 9.6% increase in the fall of 2002.
But the averages hide staggering tuition increases at some campuses, as lawmakers take aim at college budgets in the scramble to make state budgets balance. Auburn University, in Alabama, hiked in-state tuition and mandatory fees by 17% this fall (to $4,426) in response to a 6% cut in state appropriations -- and that was before Alabama residents soundly defeated the governor's call for higher taxes. Students in New York marched across the state to protest a 28% increase in state university tuition, triggered by a 20% state budget cut.
In California, the legislature lopped $410 million off the University of California's budget, an amount equal to the total funding for UC-Berkeley. That led to a 30% increase in the in-state cost of attending each of UC's eight campuses. Students have sued to try to roll back the increase. Students in Maryland, who were hit by a 6% increase in the fall of 2002 and an additional 5% increase this past January, also sued, arguing breach of contract. They lost, and tuition rose another 13% this fall. State regents in Arizona gave up their proud position of offering the lowest in-state tuitions in the country and whacked students at Arizona State and the University of Arizona with a 39% tuition increase, the largest percentage increase in the country.
And skyrocketing tuition is only half of the story. Colleges are tightening their belts, too, resulting in things you're not likely to see in the next recruitment fliers: bare library shelves as acquisition budgets are slashed; empty administrative offices as jobs are eliminated; and more crowded classrooms or fewer courses as faculties are squeezed.
Hunting for excellent education, reasonable priceSo it's high time to cast a critical eye across a public college landscape to see which colleges give students the best bang for the buck. Our exclusive survey of U.S. public colleges and universities shines a spotlight on schools that combine great academics with reasonable costs. (To view Kiplinger's complete list of college values, follow the link below.)
As our database shows, there are still dozens of places where students can get an excellent education for a reasonable price. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill tops our list for a fourth consecutive time, despite a 5% tuition increase this fall. How? Despite the hike, total costs for in-state ($11,290) and out-of-state ($23,138) students remain reasonable, especially when judged against private schools with similar academic reputations.
For Graham Long, a senior from Charlotte with a double major in political science and peace, war, and defense studies, saving money doesn't mean sacrificing quality. "My dad pays my tuition, which he couldn't do if I were going to a much more expensive private school," says Long, who is active in student government and sings in a school choir. "The academic climate is terrific, the professors are incredible, and I'm getting a great education without having to take on any debt."
High-caliber academics and generous financial aid are also keys to UNC's top ranking. Chapel Hill's ability to meet 100% of the shortfall for students with financial need sets the school apart from the pack. "Need" is the difference between a college's cost and the amount formulas calculate a family can "afford" to pay. A school that meets 100% of need offers enough grant money, loans and work-study jobs to fill the gap.
Chapel Hill's sterling academics and reasonable cost let it draw top-notch students without having to rely on beefy merit-based scholarships, saving the money for those with need (the school does offer merit-based scholarships, but it primarily uses private donations to fund them).
Out-of-state dealsThe nation's best deal for in-state students is, unfortunately, available only to North Carolina residents. So this year we applied our evaluation to out-of-state total costs to uncover the best bargains for out-of-state students, too.
Drumroll, please: Backed by its strong academic and financial aid scores, UNC-Chapel Hill comes out on top again. But some schools actually turn out to be better relative values for out-of-state students than for locals. Consider Truman State University, in Kirksville, Mo. It ranks ninth on the list of in-state bargains, but rises to second when ranked on the cost to students from outside the Show-Me state.
Erin Smith, 22, had a lot of choices when it came to college, because she was accepted to all 10 of the schools where she applied, including Vanderbilt, Emory and the University of Iowa in her home state. Smith chose Truman because of its rigorous political science curriculum and low out-of-state tuition -- $14,409 this year.
Her decision paid off. Good high school grades and ACT scores earned her a full scholarship. She'll graduate this December with a 4.0 grade point average and has applied to Harvard, Stanford and Columbia law schools. But Smith, who won the 2001 Miss Iowa title, might put the law on hold if she wins a Rhodes scholarship for which she is being considered. "Some of the things I've done at Truman might not have been possible at another school," she says. "I go to a school big enough to offer all the opportunities of a large state school, but small enough for me to know the university president personally."
Finding the right college is a highly individual decision that no list of "bests" can encompass. But our list of schools, ranging from small (sixth-ranked New College of Florida, with 650 students) to small planet (University of Texas at Austin, with nearly 40,000), and from big city (University of California, Los Angeles) to college town (University of Virginia, in Charlottesville), is a good place to begin you search.
How the cream risesWe determined our rankings based on data provided by more than 500 public, four-year colleges and universities to Peterson's, a division of the Thomson Corp. We supplemented Peterson's data with our own reporting.
We cut the list to the 200 schools with the highest percentages of the 2002-03 freshman class scoring above 600 on the verbal and math components of the SAT I, or scoring above 24 on the ACT.
We culled that list to arrive at the top 100 schools based on several other measures of academic quality -- including admission rates, student-faculty ratios, the percentage of faculty with the highest degrees in their field, how much each school spends on instruction for each student, how much each school spends on its library facilities, and four- and six-year graduation rates.
Finally, we ranked each school on a combination of quality and cost components. We looked at total cost for in-state students (tuition, mandatory fees, room, board and estimated expenses for books and supplies), the average cost for a student with need after subtracting grants (but not loans), the average cost for a student without need after subtracting merit-based grants, the average percentage of need met by aid, and average debt a student accumulates before graduation.
We repeated the procedure using out-of-state total costs and average costs after aid to determine out-of-state rankings. Overall, our scoring places greater weight on quality, which accounts for about two-thirds of the final score, than on cost.
One catch to these bargains is that you've got to gain admission. That's a tough hurdle at four of our top 20 schools (UC-Berkeley, William & Mary, Virginia and UNC-Chapel Hill), where 40% or fewer of applicants get in.
Total in-state costs among our top 100 range from $7,913 at Appalachian State University to $17,616 at UCLA. Out-of-state costs range from $13,316 at the Mississippi University for Women to $33,473 at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor.
That's not cheap, which is why we credit schools that are generous with their need-based aid. Besides Chapel Hill, other schools that meet more than 95% of need include Colorado School of Mines, Iowa State University of Science and Technology, Michigan State University and University of California, San Diego.
Great deals that aren't on our listOur database lists 100 great deals at traditional, four-year public schools with broad-based curriculums. But some off-the-radar schools merit special attention, too.
First are the military and service academies, including the federally run Air Force, Army, Coast Guard, Merchant Marine and Navy academies, as well as two public colleges, The Citadel, in Charleston, S.C., and Virginia Military Institute, in Lexington, Va. All seven are highly selective and offer tremendous opportunities. The federal service academies charge no tuition and actually pay students a stipend to attend. The Citadel charges $15,655 for in-state cadets and $24,066 for residents of other states. VMI charges $13,050 for in-state cadets and $25,762 for others.
All seven require applicants to pass physical exams and physical-fitness tests before entering. Applicants to the federal academies (except for the Coast Guard) must also obtain congressional or military nominations and must complete a multiyear hitch of military service after graduation. For these reasons, we did not include the schools in our final rankings.
Two other schools were not included on our final list because of limitations in the curriculums they offer. North Carolina School of the Arts ($9,430 in-state; $20,030 out-of-state) offers degrees in the visual and performing arts only, and the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry ($13,702 in-state, $18,602 out-of-state) offers bachelor degrees in a limited number of majors tailored to environmental study. While these limitations keep the schools off our list, either could be a fabulous bargain for students seeking these specialized curriculums.
There is also a little-known bargain hidden in the Ivy League. Many alumni of Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. (including our editor in chief, Knight Kiplinger), know that the school is actually a unique hybrid -- part privately endowed university, part land-grant state institution. Students in the Colleges of Architecture, Arts & Sciences, Engineering and Hotel Administration are part of private Cornell, and they pay for it -- $28,754 in tuition and fees for the 2003-04 school year.
But three Cornell undergraduate colleges -- Agriculture and Life Sciences, Human Ecology, and Industrial and Labor Relations -- are state schools. That means they charge much lower tuition -- $14,624 for New York residents, about half the cost of private Cornell, and $25,924 for others. The cost of room and board, $9,529, is the same for all.
Students at the three land-grant Cornell colleges have the run of the campus and sit in the same classes with students enrolled in the privately endowed colleges. The only difference is that their tuition is cheaper. We couldn't rank Cornell's public colleges with the other schools on our list because the university does not track statistical data for financial aid separately by college. But getting an Ivy League degree at a discount may well be worth its weight in gold.
All contents © 2003 The Kiplinger Washington Editors