Best Value Colleges for 2020 The Princeton Review
For so many families, maybe even yours, college costs are a big worry—I hear it over and
over in Q&A sessions for the many college-night talks I’ve given at high schools across
the country.
Thousands of people like you, who have responded to our annual College Hopes & Worries survey,
have voiced that same anxiety.
When we ask: What's your biggest concern about applying
to or attending college?
Among the answer choices: Won’t get into first-choice college
Will get into first-choice college, but won't be able to afford to attend
Will take on a high level of debt to pay for the degree
Will attend a college that the student or parents may not be happy about
The number one concern among the students and parents we surveyed was the level of debt
to pay for the degree.
That was the answer most chosen among our respondents last year.
And the year before.
And before.
And...one more: before.
For 7 years, the level of debt to pay for college has been the biggest worry among college
applicants and their parents.
We get that.
The average debt that college students graduated with last year was a little over $31,000.
That’s a lot of dough to pay back for your degree, even though stats suggest that your
college degree is going to pay you back in spades.
A bachelor’s degree is worth 2.8 million dollars on average over a lifetime, and bachelor’s
degree holders earn 84 percent more than those with a high school diploma alone.
That’s according to the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce.
Still, just because the average student borrows about $31,000 for college by graduation, that
doesn’t mean your debt load has to be so high.
Paying less for college is definitely doable and a very worthy goal indeed.
To that end, we do a ton of homework each year to help students like you identify colleges
that will enable you to pay less for college and that offer the best ROI—the best return
on your investment, of not just time, but also dollars.
Every year for the last 13 years, we name the Best Value Colleges.
We profile 75 of them in our Best Value Colleges book.
Here’s our latest edition featuring “75 Schools That Give You The Most for Your Money.”
Plus, our Best Value Colleges for 2020 website feature reveals our list of 200 colleges we
recommend overall.
From more than 650 schools we considered, the 200 we chose are truly standouts for a
combination of superlative features.
They all offer great:
Academics Affordability
Financial Aid And Career Services
...As well as favorable statistics for student debt, graduation rates, alumni salaries, and
more.
In all, we crunch more than 40 data points to select our 200 Best Value Colleges.
We also create 7 ranking lists naming the top colleges in special categories, from Best
Financial Aid to Best Career Placement to Best Alumni Network.
Each school also gets an ROI rating—for its Return on Investment.
That rating draws on PayScale.com data from alumni surveys covering starting and mid-career
salaries as well as career social impact, along with that school’s ratings for academics,
financial aid, and college costs.
So.
Are you curious to know which schools made it to the top of our “Best Value Colleges”
lists for 2020?
Drumroll please...
Vassar College ranked #1 on our Best Financial Aid list.
More than 60% of its students receive financial aid, and the average freshman need-based scholarship
grant that Vassar awarded last year was nearly $52,000.
That’s a grant, not a loan.
And that’s the average.
Plus, Vassar has a need-blind admission policy, meaning that your financial situation is not
a consideration when admission teams decide whether to admit you.
And let’s talk about the #1-ranked school on both our Best Schools for Internships and
Best Alumni Network lists.
That would be Wabash College.
At Wabash, 86% of students serve one or more internships by the time they graduate.
The school’s Schroeder Center for Career Development places students in internships
across the country.
And if networking’s your thing, Wabash has a robust and active 673,000-member alumni
association.
Our Best Value Colleges list also highlights schools with high graduation rates—because,
let’s face it, the value of a college education is very closely tied to that bachelor’s
degree you receive at the end.
And I am pleased to report that of the nearly 9,000 students at the University of Notre
Dame, 94% graduate within four years—that’s the highest rate in the country among private
colleges.
And on the public side, the University of Virginia, serving more than 16,000 students,
has an impressive 89% four-year graduation rate.
If you’re curious about the graduation rates at the schools you’re considering, or their
generosity with financial aid, or their cost of attendance, you can find all of that info—and
a whole lot more—in our college profiles at PrincetonReview.com.
Anyway, a winning combination, if ever there was one, is a high graduation rate paired
with a low cost of attendance.
Here are two of our 200 Best Value Colleges that have the distinction of being among the
most affordable in the country.
Among the private colleges we feature, at Brigham Young University, the cost of attendance
for one year is just $13,700 (that’s for tuition plus room and board).
And among our public colleges——the cost of attendance for a year at the University
of Florida runs only about $16,600 for tuition plus room and board—if you’re a resident
of Florida.
I know I'm coming at you with a lot of data—it can be mind-numbing, or maybe I should say
mind-numbering.
In fact, that's a big part of why we've sorted and ranked schools for you in The Best Value
Colleges, to help you narrow down your search based on the topics that matter most to you.
Please know that if you do your research—looking for an academically excellent school that’s
also a financial fit—you can afford to go to college.
And all of us here at The Princeton Review are rooting for you.
Subscribe to our channel to get expert advice on college and a whole lot more, and be sure
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