<p>I don't like the Kiplinger website on this because so many of the best value colleges are Ivies or LACs with no merit aid. If you have to pay full boat, how is that best value? You have to pay something for college, but $50K - 60K per year -- that's a ton of money. So I was wondering what everyone thought would be the best schools with a COA of around $30K or under. To get that COA, I propose two ways -- A school with a high COA but gives merit awards for good students (like Tulane), or a highly ranked state school that might have some merit for OOS and you can still get a COA of around $30K.</p>
<p>Nominations?</p>
<p>Schools to Consider:</p>
<p>UNC-Chapel Hill
GeorgiaTech
Penn State
UWashington
UT-Austin
UAlabama</p>
<p>Penn State gives no merit aid whatsoever and it’s COA (including dorms) is around 38k for OOS. Plus you have to fly in to Philadelphia and then drive three hours into the middle of nowhere.</p>
<p>The Kiplinger pages for private universities and LACs do show figures for non-need-based aid. About 90% of the listed private universities have non-need-based aid. About 80% of the listed LACs have non-need-based aid.
For example, for Furman the Kiplinger LAC page shows a total COA of $50,862, with merit aid going to 53% of students. The average merit grant is $18,924, which brings the cost almost down to your $30K mark. </p>
<p>Kiplinger has a page just for public universities, too:
[Best</a> Values in Public Colleges, 2011-12](<a href=“http://www.kiplinger.com/tools/colleges/]Best”>Best College Values, 2019 | Kiplinger)</p>
<p>Unfortunately, this page does not show merit aid numbers, but it does show costs after need-based aid for OOS students. About one quarter of the listed universities have a COA under $30K for OOS students, even without any aid at all. However, some of these numbers might be a bit out of date (and understated).</p>