<p>Kiplinger's publishes rankings of the top 100 public and private colleges in the country based on "value". I do NOT want to get into the whole "x university is ranked at #74! OMG!" argument that seems to come up with every ranking. This thread is NOT about the order of the ranking - if you want that, make your own thread.</p>
<p>What has me puzzled is the "Cost After Non-Need-Based Aid" category. See Rankings</a> for 100 Best Values in Private Colleges for the rankings based on this category (low to high). Kiplinger's claims that this represents the
[quote]
Cost after non-need-based aid is the 2008-09 cost for a student with no demonstrated need after subtracting the average non-need-based aid amount (excluding loans).</p>
These numbers sound awfully suspicious to me. Does the average student not qualifying for need-based aid at Caltech really pay $18,679? What about $23,754 for Duke or $29,377 at Emory?</p>
<p>They’re most likely getting the numbers from the Common Data Set. Worksheet “H” has the financial aid information for the year and breaks it down into need and non-need based awards.</p>
<p>The numbers are probably accurate. But, they are only the average for those students receiving non-need-based merit aid AND not qualifyng for need-based aid. So, you may be looking at a very small number of students. For example, Swarthmore has an endowed full-tuition scholarship program for top students from the local county and the DelMarVa peninsula. If the winners don’t qualify for need based aid, they pay room and board only – and get free tuition. So the average they pay is probably $14,000. That’s only 12 students in the whole school. It doesn’t mean that the 750 Swartmore students not qualifying for need-based aid all pay just $14,000.</p>
<p>Right. Swarthmore is Kiplinger’s #2 value LAC, but look at their Common Data Set, 2008-2009, section H2A. Among freshmen judged to have no financial need, only ONE was awarded a non-need-based grant ($36,154.) So, as interesteddad suggests, $14,350 may be the correct out-of-pocket cost for that ONE student, but hardly seems a representative number! By cost after need-based aid, Swarthmore is #15.</p>
<p>To Kiplinger’s credit, their site allows click-sorting on multiple columns, so pick the criterion that seems most relevant to your case, then investigate the numbers.</p>
<p>I can only answer for Emory: with Emory Scholars at all different level of tuition discounting, that “average” looks right on target…yes, there are quite a few “full payers” but there are also a decent # of the incoming class receiving scholarships ranging from 1/4 tuition to full</p>
<p>Does anyone know how they get the “average debt on graduation?” How do colleges know if a student took out a private loan to pay his/her tuition?</p>
<p>@interesteddad: You are correct, and it is outrageous that Kiplinger’s uses those statistics. Yes, Caltech has extremely generous merit aid - for a very small subset of the student body.</p>
<p>Thanks for clearing that up. I’ll look at section H of the CDS in more detail from now on.</p>
<p>Kiplinger has the same flaw with that, too. You can’t separate average aid package from the number of aided students. The two have to be linked in any analysis.</p>
<p>Let’s take the worse need-based aid school in the country, an hypothetical school that only has one student qualifying for aid, the other 99.9% paying full-fare. But, the one need-based aid student get a free ride. That is going to be the best need-based aid school in the country according to Kiplinger. They are totally overlooking the fact that the more students receiving aid, the lower the average aid package. Obviously, if 50% of your students qualify for need-based aid, you are going quite high into the “middle-class” for aid. Swarthmore and Williams have need-based aid recepients as high as $230,000 annual income. Obviously, these are not full-ride packages!</p>
<p>If you really want a single-number to represent “good” versus “bad” financial aid, take the net student revenues (tution, room, board, and fees) minus aid discounts (need and non-need). Divide that by the number of students. This gives you an average net price, i.e. the actual pile of cash money forked over by the average student each year. You will see some suprising results when you graph these. There’s a knee in the curve. As you go up the selectivity ladder, the average net price increased to just below the tippy top. At the tippy top, the average net price goes back down.</p>
<p>For example, last year, Swarthmore was $1200 cheaper than Middlebury, $2200 cheaper than Haverford, $2700 cheaper than Bowdoin, $3400 cheaper than Bates, and $3800 cheaper than Vassar in terms real cash money for real students. You have to consider both the number of aided students and the size of the award packages.</p>
<p>The only way to compare your individual aid situation is to get accepted to multiple schools, file for aid, and compare the actual offers. There’s just too much individual circumstance for anyone to tell you whether your aid will be better at School A or School B.</p>
<p>Student loans are administered through a college’s financial aid office. Even if they weren’t, the National Student Clearinghouse provides colleges and lenders with students’ total loan information.</p>
<p>Average indebtedness after graduation is another figure that’s included on the Common Data Set.</p>