Today more than ever, the return on investment–sometimes referred to as educational ROI-students receive from higher-ed institutions is a critical factor in their decisions regarding which institution to attend.
Financial aid, loans, starting and average salaries, and career prospects all factor into the return students get on the dollars they commit to a college or university.
Related content: Students get smart about educational ROI
To speak to the importance of value and educational ROI, the Princeton Review just released its list of the 200 Best Value Colleges for 2020. The project annually names the undergraduate institutions the education services company recommends as offering the best educational ROI. The Princeton Review staff used more than 40 data points to select the schools for the list and tally the project’s seven categories of ranking lists.
The Princeton Review posted its Best Value Colleges list, seven ranking lists, and profiles of the 200 schools (plus profiles of nine tuition-free schools), where the information is accessible for free with site registration.
The company chose the 200 schools based on surveys of administrators at 656 colleges in 2018–19. Survey topics covered academics, cost, financial aid, career services, graduation rates, student debt, and alumni support.
The Princeton Review also factored in data from its surveys of students attending the colleges, as well as PayScale.com surveys of alumni of the schools about their starting and mid-career salaries and job satisfaction.
“The schools we chose as our Best Value Colleges for 2020 comprise only 7 percent of the nation’s four-year colleges,” says Robert Franek, The Princeton Review’s editor-in-chief. “They are truly distinctive and diverse in their programs, size, region, and type, yet they are similar in three areas. Every school we selected offers outstanding academics, generous financial aid and/or relative low cost of attendance, and stellar career services. We recommend them highly to college applicants and parents seeking schools that are academically top-notch and committed to making their programs affordable. These colleges are also standouts at guiding their students to rewarding futures.”
Ranking highlights
On the project’s main ranking list, “Top 75 Best Value Colleges,” which is based solely on ROI ratings tallied by The Princeton Review, Princeton University (NJ) earned the #1 spot. For admitted students who qualify for financial aid, the University meets 100 percent of each student’s need with scholarship grants–not loans. The average scholarship grant Princeton University awarded to undergrads with need last year was $51,365.
Six additional ranking lists, all based on survey data, name the top 25 schools in other categories. The categories and #1 schools on the lists are:
Best Schools for Financial Aid — Vassar College (NY)
Best Career Placement — Harvey Mudd College (CA)
Best Schools for Internships — Wabash College (IN)
Best Schools for Making an Impact— Wesleyan University (CT)
Best Alumni Networks — Wabash College (IN)
Best Value Colleges for Students with No Demonstrated Need — Harvey Mudd College (CA)
The Princeton Review does not rank the 200 schools hierarchically from 1 to 200.
Among the 200 colleges (137 private and 63 public):
- The average grant to students with need is $29,748.
- The median starting salary of graduates is $60,824.
- The mid-career salary of graduates is $117,583.
Among the 63 public colleges:
- The average net cost of attendance (sticker price minus average grant) for in-state students receiving need-based aid is $12,944.
- The average admission rate is 53 percent.
- 14 of the colleges admit over 70 percent of their applicants.
The first edition of The Princeton Review’s Best Value Colleges book, published in 2004, was inspired by findings of the company’s 2003 College Hopes & Worries Survey, a project that annually polls college applicants and their parents about their application perspectives and concerns.
In the 17 years that The Princeton Review has conducted the survey, respondents have expressed concerns about college costs at levels that have risen year after year. Among the findings of the 2019 survey reported March 6, 2019: 88 percent of the 11,900 respondents said financial aid would be “very” or “extremely” necessary to pay for college—a substantial increase from the 78 percent of respondents who indicated such levels of need in 2007. Findings of the 2020 survey will be reported in March.
Material from a press release was used in this report.
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