By “best buy”, I mean the most selective school for the money. I created a simple index by dividing the average net total price (after grants and scholarships are factored in) by the SAT midpoint. The average net price is for family incomes in the $48K-$75K range The lower the index, the better the “buy”. Data is from IPEDS.
average net price, SAT midpoint, index, school
5405 1505 3.59 Harvard University
6077 1505 4.04 Princeton University
6240 1475 4.23 Stanford University
6939 1500 4.63 Yale University
6964 1460 4.77 Pomona College
5433 1132 4.80 Berea College
7258 1480 4.90 Columbia University in the City of New York
8405 1500 5.60 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
9047 1490 6.07 Vanderbilt University
7499 1230 6.10 Sewanee-The University of the South
10016 1440 6.96 Amherst College
10187 1460 6.98 Rice University
10539 1455 7.24 Dartmouth College
10771 1480 7.28 Harvey Mudd College
10965 1435 7.64 Bowdoin College
7763 1005 7.72 Brigham Young University-Idaho
11259 1435 7.85 Brown University
11403 1450 7.86 University of Pennsylvania
10963 1335 8.21 Davidson College
10847 1320 8.22 Kenyon College
12579 1515 8.30 University of Chicago
8318 0980 8.49 Alice Lloyd College
11817 1390 8.50 Vassar College
13343 1545 8.64 California Institute of Technology
12384 1365 9.07 Colgate University
12909 1410 9.16 Claremont McKenna College
8541 0925 9.23 Blue Mountain College
13565 1445 9.39 Williams College
9559 1010 9.46 Lincoln Memorial University
13076 1375 9.51 Middlebury College
14207 1455 9.76 Duke University
13479 1367 9.86 Scripps College
14050 1410 9.96 Wellesley College
14026 1385 10.13 Hamilton College
10847 1060 10.23 Brigham Young University-Hawaii
14927 1415 10.55 Johns Hopkins University
11979 1130 10.60 Madonna University
9758 0920 10.61 Mount Olive College
13369 1255 10.65 Brigham Young University-Provo
14817 1340 11.06 Barnard College
15417 1385 11.13 Washington and Lee University
15612 1400 11.15 Haverford College
15091 1340 11.26 Bryn Mawr College
15885 1405 11.31 Georgetown University
12706 1110 11.45 Lyon College
11971 1034 11.58 College of the Ozarks
16583 1430 11.60 University of Notre Dame
15580 1340 11.63 Macalester College
16296 1390 11.72 Wesleyan University
16199 1375 11.78 Grinnell College
16830 1420 11.85 Cornell University
17920 1470 12.19 Northwestern University
18354 1485 12.36 Washington University in St Louis
18174 1440 12.62 Swarthmore College
11868 0935 12.69 Emmanuel College
13813 1080 12.79 Central Baptist College
13631 1065 12.80 Dominican University
17445 1363 12.80 Oberlin College
11599 0900 12.89 Louisiana College
13780 1065 12.94 Lee University
16957 1300 13.04 St Olaf College
16744 1278 13.11 Dickinson College
16620 1250 13.30 Trinity College
19049 1430 13.32 Carleton College
17475 1310 13.34 University of Richmond
14320 1070 13.38 Fontbonne University
16301 1215 13.42 The College of Wooster
13635 1015 13.43 Wingate University
14906 1105 13.49 Blackburn College
17077 1260 13.55 Denison University
16944 1250 13.56 Thomas Aquinas College
15381 1130 13.61 North Greenville University
18314 1345 13.62 Colby College
19711 1445 13.64 Tufts University
15099 1105 13.66 Northland College
13739 1005 13.67 Wesleyan College
14362 1050 13.68 Saint Joseph’s College-New York
14651 1051 13.95 Mount Mary University
16399 1175 13.96 Cornell College
14285 1015 14.07 University of Mary
18667 1325 14.09 Colorado College
13603 0965 14.10 Tennessee Wesleyan College
18548 1315 14.10 Wheaton College
15068 1065 14.15 Oklahoma Baptist University
18471 1305 14.15 Occidental College
13199 0925 14.27 Ohio Valley University
13497 0946 14.27 Silver Lake College of the Holy Family
16501 1150 14.35 Rockhurst University
18265 1270 14.38 Illinois Institute of Technology
17371 1205 14.42 Eureka College
15450 1070 14.44 Columbia International University
15922 1100 14.47 Salem College
15439 1060 14.57 Ursuline College
18755 1285 14.60 Gettysburg College
19815 1350 14.68 University of Rochester
19937 1355 14.71 Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art
14645 0995 14.72 Hannibal-LaGrange University
17054 1155 14.77 Ripon College
16931 1143 14.82 John Brown University
19127 1275 15.00 Lafayette College
I restricted the list to private colleges because I could not find an average net price for out-of-state students at the public universities. Does this data exist in IPEDS?
Of course a college’s quality is not exclusively determined by the SAT scores of its entering students.
That doesn’t necessarily mean there is no correlation between selectivity and quality/ROI.
If a college were clearly superior in quality, low in cost, but not very selective, wouldn’t the word eventually get out and its application numbers tend to rise? Conversely, why would a mediocre, expensive college with poor financial aid continue to attract many applications from excellent, highly motivated students?
It approximately mirrors the OP’s list.
At the top of the list, Princeton’s full COA minus average n-b aid is about $22K.
At the bottom, DePaul University’s is about $36K.
If you were a superstar HS scholar athlete who could attend either school at those prices, which would you chose?
(Although, it may be the case that the superstar HS scholar athlete gets excellent financial “returns” almost wherever s/he goes.)
“Average” isn’t all that useful of a statistic much of the time. A couple of really big numbers messes it up fast. For example, if 3 people receive full tuition and 3 people get a dollar each,the average aid of the six who recieved it is 50%. Not meaningful.
Personally, although I like that you’ve abstracted data in a novel way, I wouldn’t do much planning based on this. Do keep at it though.
It’s true that the Common Data Sets don’t show aid distribution patterns. They only show averages. However, averages still can be useful (as long as you’re comparing apples to apples.)
What the OP has shown is the average net price *for family incomes in the $48K-$75K range/i. I doubt that HYPSM, AWSP etc. are each applying wildly different aid formulas to admitted students with similar financial circumstances. If you are a middle-income student admitted to one of these schools, I would expect your net costs to be reasonably close to the average for that school, for that income (and at any rate, to be lower than your net costs to attend schools closer to the bottom of the list … unless merit aid comes into play). For admitted students in the same income range, you’re unlikely to see some getting full tuition and others getting a dollar each. Aid does not work that way at those schools (although circumstances such as child support or business income can affect aid differently than wage income).
If you’re skeptical about this, try running the online net price calculators for various financial scenarios.
If you find a plausible circumstance in which the net costs for HYPSM/AWSP are significantly higher than the net costs (after n-b aid only) for, say, Lafayette, for approximately the same income and other relevant circumstances … please show us.
Here are the 100 worst “buys” among private schools based on average net price divided by SAT midpoint. These schools are very costly relative to selectivity.
34846 1020 34.16 Spelman College
30769 0915 33.63 Tuskegee University
37265 1128 33.05 The New School
32067 0978 32.81 The College of New Rochelle
30413 0935 32.53 Lynn University
34650 1070 32.38 Roosevelt University
33616 1040 32.32 Whittier College
30153 0938 32.16 Curry College
28014 0885 31.65 Mount Ida College
34700 1105 31.40 Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University-Daytona Beach
31396 1005 31.24 Morehouse College
35930 1160 30.97 Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University-Prescott
32677 1060 30.83 Lesley University
29399 0955 30.78 Centenary College
28958 0945 30.64 Immaculata University
26244 0860 30.52 Fisk University
29899 1000 29.90 Alaska Pacific University
29589 0990 29.89 Wheelock College
36260 1216 29.83 DigiPen Institute of Technology
27440 0920 29.83 LIU Brooklyn
27028 0917 29.49 Oakwood University
27571 0935 29.49 Mount St Mary’s College
30637 1040 29.46 Marymount Manhattan College
31912 1095 29.14 Carthage College
28030 0965 29.05 Southern New Hampshire University
32463 1120 28.98 Adelphi University
31674 1095 28.93 Quinnipiac University
31288 1085 28.84 High Point University
29637 1030 28.77 University of New Haven
28163 0985 28.59 Catawba College
26725 0935 28.58 Nichols College
28660 1005 28.52 Becker College
24788 0870 28.49 Ohio Christian University
27222 0970 28.06 LIU Post
32010 1145 27.96 Florida Institute of Technology
29140 1050 27.75 University of Hartford
26612 0960 27.72 St Andrews University
30847 1115 27.67 Champlain College
27674 1005 27.54 Iona College
28608 1040 27.51 Rider University
31110 1135 27.41 Bryant University
31735 1160 27.36 Seattle University
30411 1115 27.27 Catholic University of America
32421 1190 27.24 Drexel University
28871 1060 27.24 Dominican University of California
26261 0965 27.21 Daniel Webster College
30044 1110 27.07 Saint Mary’s College of California
33240 1230 27.02 Emerson College
31422 1165 26.97 Hofstra University
24379 0905 26.94 Virginia Intermont College
29239 1090 26.82 Emmanuel College
28679 1070 26.80 Endicott College
28676 1070 26.80 Nova Southeastern University
25160 0940 26.77 St Thomas Aquinas College
24875 0935 26.60 Rivier University
26700 1010 26.44 Suffolk University
29293 1110 26.39 Wentworth Institute of Technology
28728 1090 26.36 St John’s University-New York
30517 1160 26.31 Kettering University
27425 1050 26.12 University of New England
23902 0920 25.98 University of Bridgeport
29095 1122 25.94 Biola University
27387 1060 25.84 Monmouth University
28621 1110 25.78 Oklahoma City University
34728 1355 25.63 New York University
24601 0960 25.63 Saint Joseph’s College of Maine
27263 1065 25.60 The University of Tampa
25591 1000 25.59 Mount Saint Mary College
29672 1160 25.58 University of St Thomas
28341 1110 25.53 Saint Joseph’s University
22527 0885 25.45 Southern Vermont College
25444 1005 25.32 Shenandoah University
25870 1025 25.24 Widener University-Main Campus
24264 0962 25.24 Tiffin University
24924 0990 25.18 Wilson College
29395 1170 25.12 Belmont University
27111 1080 25.10 Manhattan College
28078 1120 25.07 Siena College
24437 0975 25.06 Lasell College
23796 0950 25.05 University of Saint Joseph
26917 1075 25.04 Howard University
30643 1225 25.01 Baylor University
31366 1255 24.99 Fordham University
24591 0985 24.97 Notre Dame de Namur University
27869 1120 24.88 Eckerd College
24611 0990 24.87 Menlo College
27929 1125 24.83 University of Dayton
24878 1005 24.75 Hampton University
27033 1095 24.69 Azusa Pacific University
30241 1225 24.69 University of Puget Sound
22832 0925 24.68 La Sierra University
24019 0975 24.63 Woodbury University
27221 1105 24.63 Salve Regina University
24115 0980 24.61 Franklin Pierce University
27246 1110 24.55 Xavier University
28457 1160 24.53 Wagner College
27428 1120 24.49 University of Scranton
28616 1170 24.46 University of San Francisco
21738 0890 24.42 Dominican College of Blauvelt
26126 1070 24.42 Western New England University
The OP is not showing average net prices for all students attending each college.
S/he’s showing average net prices for students in a specific middle income band who do receive financial aid. So none of them would be full pay students.
Correlation is irrelevant though as there are plenty of outliers, and those outliers will attract certain students. Embry-Riddle Prescott, for example, has one of the highest ROI’s of any private college in the US. Higher than Cornell, Brown, and Rice.
Correlations are, by nature, unreliable. Students should research each and every college that is of interest to them to find out the whole story.
Why is the average net price divided by SAT score? What does that mean? Shouldn’t it be the Inverse of the SAT score so schools are rewarded in your index by offering more $ for a Lower score?