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1/9/2009 CONTACT: B.J. Almond Rice ranks No. 4 on two new best-value lists
Rice University is No. 4 on two independent rankings of best values among private colleges that were published this week. Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine and the Princeton Review "Best Value Colleges for 2009" both included Rice among their top five private schools. The lists spotlight colleges and universities that offer both an exceptional education and an outstanding economic value. Only two other universities besides Rice appear in the top five on both lists: Princeton and Yale. Kiplinger's rankings, published in the February issue of the magazine, measure academic quality and affordability, with quality accounting for two-thirds of the total. The quality metric incorporated such measures as Rice's student-faculty ratio, the percentage of applicants offered admission, the percentage of freshmen who earned a bachelor's degree within four or five years and the percentage of the 2007-08 freshman class who scored 600 or higher on the verbal and math components of the SAT or 24 or higher on the ACT. The affordability metric incorporated the total cost for the 2008-09 academic year, including tuition, fees, books, and room and board; cost after need-based aid; percentage of the average aid package that came from grants or scholarships; cost after non-need-based aid; percentage of undergraduates who received non-need-based aid; and average debt at graduation owed by graduates who took out education loans. The Princeton Review rankings, published in the Jan. 8 USA Today, were based on more than 30 factors in three areas: academics, costs of attendance and financial aid. The Review's academic ratings were based on student surveys about such issues as class sizes and professors' accessibility, and institutional reports about student-faculty ratios and percentage of classes taught by teaching assistants. The financial aid ratings were based on a combination of school-reported data and student surveys. Tuition, room and board, required fees, book costs and other factors were included in the financial measurement. Rice admits students regardless of their ability to pay and provides financial-aid packages that meet 100 percent of their demonstrated need. Tuition at Rice tends to be significantly lower than at its private peer universities. For the freshman class entering Rice this fall, the university recently increased its no-loan threshold to families with incomes of up to $80,000. Rice also lowered the cap on loans in financial-aid packages for need-eligible incoming freshmen to $10,000 for their four undergraduate years. "We want a Rice education to remain accessible and affordable to students from all walks of life, especially during these hard economic times when many families are facing difficult financial circumstances," Rice President David Leebron said. For the complete list of Kiplinger's rankings, go to http://www.kiplinger.com/money/collegevalues. For the Princeton Review rankings, go to http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/best-value-colleges.htm. |
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