College

Guide to the Tables

By the Editors of Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine

From Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine, December 2011

Our rankings measure academic quality and affordability, with quality accounting for a majority of the total. We started with data on more than 600 private institutions provided by Peterson's, then added our own reporting. Our list ranks the top 50 universities and liberal-arts colleges in separate tables.

SEE OUR TOOL: Get Complete Rankings of our Top 200 Private Universities and Liberal Arts Colleges

Admission rate is the percentage of applicants offered admission. Freshman retention rate shows the percentage of the freshman class who returned for their sophomore year. Students per faculty is the average number of students per instructor. Graduation rate is the percentage of freshmen who earned a bachelor’s degree within four or five years. Total cost for academic year 2011–12 includes tuition, mandatory fees, room and board, and estimated expenses for books. Average need-based aid is the average need-based amount for students who were awarded scholarships or grants (loans are excluded). Percentage of need met shows how much the college contributes toward the difference between what the family is expected to pay and the total cost.

Average non-need-based aid is the average amount of institutional non-need-based scholarship and grant money awarded to students (excluding athletic awards). Percentage of need-based aid is the percentage of all undergraduates who receive need-based aid. Percentage of non-need-based aid is the percentage of all undergraduates without need who received non-need-based aid. Average debt at graduation is the average amount owed by graduates who took out education loans.

To break ties, we used academic-quality scores and average debt at graduation.

Marc A. Wojno, Matthew Cwalinski, John Miley, Susannah Snider and Michael Stratford helped compile this data.

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