Rice is No. 1 best value in two Kiplinger’s rankings

Rice University ranks No. 1 among private universities on Kiplinger’s list of “30 Best Values in Small Colleges” and “30 Best College Values in the West/Southwest.”

The new rankings were announced this week by Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine, which reviewed its top 100 best values in each of three categories — public colleges, private universities and liberal arts colleges – to group schools by size and region. Rice ranks No. 3 on Kiplinger’s national list of best value private universities.

Kiplinger’s rankings are based on academic quality and affordability. Academic criteria include the student admission rate (the number of students accepted out of those who apply), the test scores of incoming freshmen, the ratio of students to faculty members and the four- and five-year graduation rates. Affordability factors include sticker price, availability and average amount of need-based and merit-based financial aid and average student debt at graduation.

Rice University admits students regardless of their ability to pay and provides financial aid packages that meet 100 percent of their demonstrated need. Freshmen who qualify for need-based aid and whose family annual income is $80,000 or less are not required to take out loans to pay for their education. Rice has a $10,000 limit on required loans in financial aid packages for other need-eligible incoming freshmen for their four undergraduate years.

For the complete list of Kiplinger’s 30 Best Values in Small Colleges (schools with fewer than 5,000 undergraduate students), visit www.kiplinger.com/article/college/T014-C000-S001-best-values-in-small-colleges.html.

For the 30 Best College Values in the West/Southwest, visit www.kiplinger.com/article/college/T014-C000-S001-best-college-values-in-the-west-southwest.html.