Princeton Review Names Best Value Colleges for 2011

The Princeton Review, one of America's best-known education services companies, has teamed up with USA TODAY to present a list of America's 100 "Best Value Colleges" of the year.  

The 2011 list which features 50 public and 50 private colleges names the University of Virginia (Charlottesville) as the #1 "Best Value Public College" and Swarthmore College (Swarthmore, PA) the #1 "Best Value Private College." 

In each group -- public and private -- the list identifies 10 top schools in rank order and the remaining 40 in alphabetical order, unranked. The complete lists posted today on the Princeton Review Website and USA TODAYWebsite. 

The criteria

The Princeton Review chose the schools as its "Best Value Colleges" for 2011 based on criteria covering academics, cost of attendance, and financial aid. The methodology examined more than 30 factors using data from the company's surveys of administrators and students at 650 colleges with strong academic programs.  Most of the data analyzed came from surveys conducted from fall 2009 through fall 2010: all cost and financial aid data came from fall 2010 surveys. 

"While a college education is undeniably a valuable investment, paying for college is challenging for most parents," said Robert Franek, Princeton Review senior vice president for publishing. "Among the 12,000 respondents to our 2010  'College Hopes & Worries Survey' of college applicants and their parents, 86 percent told us financial aid would be 'very necessary' to foot the bill.  For them and for all families seeking academically outstanding colleges that have been exceptional at meeting their students' needs for financial aid, we're pleased to have teamed up with USA TODAY to identify and recommend these 100 institutions as 'Best Value' colleges."

The "Top 10 Best Value Public Colleges for 2011" are: 

1. University of Virginia (Charlottesville, VA)
2. New College of Florida (Sarasota, FL)
3. University of Florida (Gainesville, FL)
4. State University of New York at Binghamton (Binghamton, NY)
5. University of Georgia (Athens, GA)
6. University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, MI)
7. College of William and Mary (Williamsburg, VA)
8. University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill, NC)
9. North Carolina State University (Raleigh, NC)
10. City University of New York – Hunter College (New York, NY)

The "Top 10 Best Value Private Colleges for 2011" are: 

1. Swarthmore College (Swarthmore, PA)
2. Duke University (Durham, NC)
3. Princeton University (Princeton, NJ)
4. California Institute of Technology (Pasadena, CA)
5. Harvard College (Cambridge, MA)
6. Wesleyan University (Middletown, CT)
7. Williams College (Williamstown, MA)
8. Vanderbilt University (Nashville, TN)
9. Wesleyan College (Macon, GA)
10. Yale University (New Haven, CT)

The Princeton Review's and USA TODAY's Websites post the full "100 Best Value Colleges" list with information about the colleges. At USA TODAY's website, users can click on an interactive map and access a database with stats and facts about each school including its cost of attendance, financial aid, and enrollment -- plus a report on why The Princeton Review named it a "Best Value" college.