Well, (heh, heh) I should be finding out how very generous their financial aid is soon - although if it’s not very helpful, being a GS student instead of a CC student might be a factor. But in all seriousness, US News not using net price or total sticker price for its main ranking probably explains why Columbia does better on that ranking than the Forbes ranking. In the US News ranking, the only schools it can’t seem to overtake are the Ivy League’s big trifecta of Harvard, Princeton, and Yale, so you have to wonder if the overall reputation of HYP, as opposed to more concrete reasons, plays a factor in that. And of course, we don’t know how Columbia will rank in the next US News list until it’s released in the coming days.
I assume that even though Columbia makes the Top 10 for best value, price still does play a factor because its elite peers also offer generous financial aid. Perhaps even more generous - we’ll naturally have a better understanding of this when the official best value ranking comes out. Regardless of if Forbes uses net price or total sticker price, Columbia does rank among the Ivy League schools in the Forbes Best Value list at #48. So if Forbes does use net price, I suppose this invites a comparison between Columbia’s financial aid and the amount of financial aid provided by other elites.
Ultimately though, I feel it’s important to note that it’s not like Columbia is being seriously hurt in these rankings - it’s still #14 on the Forbes list and as mentioned above, it’s been doing better on the US News list. The only ranking that blatantly said the price hurt it was the Business Insider list, which was specifically focused on the elite, Ivy League schools. I still suspect price is a factor (although probably not the only factor) in Columbia’s ranking because again, it still ranks in the upper echelon of schools. It’s just not quite up there with HYPSM - and like I always say, no schools are, at least when it comes to overall reputation.