The BEST VALUE Private Colleges And Universities (PHOTOS)

Private colleges, despite their often staggering price tags, can be good values for students -- at least according to the Princeton Review. Taking into account academics, financial aid and more,
the Review ranked the top ten private and public best value schools. See which private schools are in the top tier below.

See USA Today for more on the Review's methodology.

See the top ten best value public schools here.

And see the Review's full list of best value private colleges here.

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Swarthmore College

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I beg to differ. Dang.

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Comments

[pinkogirl]

08:53 PM on 08/29/2010

The Best Value? College costs too much! And most of the top schools on this list are sitting on hundreds of millions --in some cases billions-- of dollars in endowments that they are not dipping into to make college more affordable. A Harvard education should be FREE! The school has more than enough in its endowment to pay the tuition of every undergraduate it admits for years to come. But instead it pays its financial adviser millions to sit on the money. Never mind the inflation in higher education that is completely out of whack with the rest of the economy. Colleges in the USA should be concerned about the shrinking number of citizens graduating from them.

[SmokingJoe]

10:01 AM on 08/17/2010

BYU!

[tomc444]

07:07 AM on 08/12/2010

The Princeton Review is nothing more than an advertising rag, and playing off the name Princeton.
I wonder how many people incur a lot of debt by basing their college choice on this rag?

[tcordier]

05:41 PM on 08/11/2010

I actually think they have the wrong Wesleyan in there.

[Gabi Medina]

10:12 PM on 08/13/2010

They did not. They came to our school for Good Morning America and everything months ago. It's the right Wesleyan. Stop it.

[apeachy1]

04:22 PM on 08/14/2010

Tell em Gabi.

[ramsaytroy]

05:01 PM on 08/11/2010

I love that MIT pic.

[morefromLA]

02:56 PM on 08/11/2010

Please, please, PLEASE, this little, if anything, west of the Mississippi is worth mentioning is tiresome. Stanford? USC? Puget Sound? Chapman? Macalester? Nothing? Nada? Really?

[WPF]

12:42 AM on 08/15/2010

Thank you for mentioning Macalaster! A place more people should know about.

[Tressie Mc]

01:44 PM on 08/11/2010

the hot h311 is up with that Wesleyan ad?!!! it looks like a Dippity Doo Shampoo ad from 1985!!! I would be totally turned off by that.

[Leviathan21]

02:01 PM on 08/11/2010

Yeah, it doesn't really inspire a lot of academic confidence.

[jtackeff]

01:12 PM on 08/11/2010

These schools are here because they not only provide an amazing education, they are most likely to meet all the needs for financial aid for there students

[FreeTheWorld]

01:00 PM on 08/11/2010

This article should be subtitled: Princeton Review jerks off itself and the other Ivies.

[Lawdog10]

01:02 PM on 08/11/2010

LOL, love it.

[countingdays]

01:47 PM on 08/11/2010

I was just about to say the same thing (or at least something similar) until I read your post. All of these so-called "rankings" are just a con game put on by certain members of the educational "in crowd".

[MBAgrad]

11:48 AM on 08/11/2010

Where is Walden University?

[Jay Yarm]

11:56 AM on 08/11/2010

Nowhere. Online only, their website only has telephone & email contact info, I can't even find any sign of a physical address, not even a PO Box #

[disgustedwithall]

11:30 AM on 08/11/2010

the very best "advantage" of ANY of those listed is the contacts you make while there. As later in life school rings and old school tie (ties?) pay off. When we look at mess USA is in, seems a lot of the grads come from those listed. hmmm best schools, hardly so in most areas where econ, pol sci, MBA, etc is ruling.

Simply put in most cases, other then perhaps medical or such real course work, the attendee is there for contacts and peers, to keep the nearly royal bloodlines thinking as they always have and not a lot of commoners to deal with. Sorry but lots of better schools out there in most disciplines, but not the contacts.. and for most, that is what matters.

[Jan Kubik]

11:07 AM on 08/11/2010

Strongly suspect that Huff Post meant to list Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT, rather than the Wesleyan in Georgia. The former is one of the top undergraduate teaching colleges (although it does have about 200 grad students) in the country. Pricey, but with lots of need based financial aid

But it is understandable how those fact checkers at HP can be so confused. There are lots of colleges named after John Wesley. But the one in CT is the best!

[leftpinkie]

11:46 AM on 08/11/2010

Sorry but Huff Post got it correct in their reproduction of the news from the original source ~ check out the link to USA today.

[Jessica Seale]

12:33 PM on 08/11/2010

While no one disputes that Wesleyan University is an outstanding school, it did not earn the number three best value spot. Wesleyan College is the first college in the world to grant college degrees to women, is home of the oldest alumnae association in the world, is the birthplace of the first two sororities (ADPi and Phi Mu), and has been graduating bright, educated women for 174 years. Coupled with its small class sizes, excellent faculty, outstanding post-grad admissions records for graduates, extremely generous financial aid, and relative low cost for a private college (about $25k/yr including room and board), Wesleyan College has more than earned its place on this list.

And yes, it's my alma mater.

[vonric]

10:36 AM on 08/11/2010

I'm always facinated at the some what arcane assemblies that HP comes up with for colleges and universities by various categories...... Best Value must bundle into the equation the presumptive value of the degree earned, which is why Harvard and some of the other Ivies are on the list, given their staggering bottom line. Swarthmore is not cheap, either. It was nice to see my undergrad setting on the list, a school that was tuition-free until 1962...............

And yep, it is a surprise to NOT see Cooper Union on the list; it has a substantive reputation and is tuition free.

[Neptune121]

11:59 AM on 08/11/2010

You probably haven't heard about the new Ivy League financial aid policies:

They no longer give merit scholarships. They simply give financial aid to anyone who needs it. They commit to meeting 100% of your demonstrated need with the goal being that nobody graduates with loans. Everything is grant money.

So after 4 years you walk out with a degree from an Ivy League school and no student loans.

Now that's value.

[praxitas]

10:09 AM on 08/11/2010

why not just a list, perhaps with little pictures which could be enlarged with a click if the reader chooses. i think there may be some benefit to the websites bottom line from forcing us to linger using this slideshow nonsense. maybe it suggests greater interest in the site rather than a poor interaction and user experience choice.

[Jay Yarm]

10:07 AM on 08/11/2010

How about Cooper Union? Free for a top Art and respected Engineering and Architecture school has to be considered a pretty good value