These schools offer big average discounts to financially needy students.
To a seasoned bargain hunter, 75 percent off a Harvard University education may sound like a deal that's too good to be true. But for nearly two thirds of undergrads enrolled during the 2011-2012 school year, the average discount from the total cost was almost that extreme.
Though Harvard's published tuition and fees for the 2011-2012 school year alone totaled $39,849, the 60 percent of students who received need-based aid paid, on average, just $14,495 for tuition and fees, room and board, and other expenses. The widespread discounting makes Harvard not only one of the top National Universities in the U.S. News Best Colleges rankings for 2013, but a top Best Value School as well.
School-reported data show that, despite sticker prices that tend to rise each year, there are deals to be had for qualified students at top schools like Harvard nationwide. The U.S. News Best Value Schools rankings identify colleges in or near the top half of their rankings categories that discount their net price of college to a large percentage of financially needy students.
In the 2013 rankings, 50 National Universities were deemed Best Value Schools, as well as 40 National Liberal Arts Colleges, 53 Regional Universities, and 40 Regional Colleges. Though not all schools on the lists post average discounts as high as Harvard's, the aid awards can lower the cost of college significantly for students who receive need-based aid.
[Read more about the Best Value Schools methodology.]
At the University of Richmond, for instance, published tuition and fees totaled $43,170 for the 2011-2012 school year. But the institution, ranked the 11th Best Value School among National Liberal Arts Colleges, ultimately cut an average of 66 percent off the total cost for 45 percent of undergraduates, dropping the average net cost for those award recipients to $18,309.
"We want to make sure that [for] students who have earned admission to Richmond ... the cost of attendance does not stand in their way of joining our community," says Nanci Tessier, the school's vice president for enrollment management. "We want to make sure that our education is accessible to them. Because of that, we devote significant financial resources."
Best Value Schools are scattered across the country, from Colby College in Maine to Pepperdine University on the California coast and Gonzaga University in Washington state to Centre College in Danville, Ky. Of the 183 Best Value Schools in the 2013 rankings, just 13 are public institutions. But at those schools, even out-of-state students may be able to score a good deal.
The rankings formula, which divides a school's U.S. News Best Colleges 2013 overall score by the average net cost for students receiving need-based aid and balances that with the percentage of students receiving that aid and the average total discount, considers out-of-state student data for public schools.
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