<p>For those of us who just wrote tuition checks, this feature on The Today Show should buttress our lighter wallets. The Princeton Review says Swarthmore College is the "best value" in the nation, taking into account academics, cost of attendance and financial aid.</p>
<p>Based on my son's experience first semester, we don't need this to be delighted with his choice. But it's nice:</p>
<p>On</a> a budget? Top 20 best value colleges - TODAY Technology & Money</p>
<p>Is Wesleyan College in Macon Georgia? Or is this some other Wesleyan we’re talking about (like Georgia Wesleyan)? Wesleyan is listed at #3 on the list.</p>
<p>it’s an all women’s college in Macon, Georgia. 
<em>The</em> Wesleyan is in Middletown, CT. There were lots of different colleges MIA as far as the top 20 listed in this poll, including Brown, Cornell, Bowdoin and Middlebury.</p>
<p>I have never heard anything bad about Swarthmore, but best value? It’s great if you are eligible for financial aid, but it’s pretty pricey if you aren’t.</p>
<p>MD Mom, we have a kid who graduated from Swarthmore a few years ago, and I have to tell you that my husband rolled his eyes when I told him that Swat was ranked #1 for value. For those eligible for financial aid, yes, not for the rest of us. But, I have nothing bad to say about the school. My kid loved it.</p>
<p>Well value isn’t the same as cost… It’s one thing to disagree with the ranking, say maybe you believe another school offers better services and education at a lower cost, but its wrong to say that Swarthmore is not the “best value” because of its cost. And the title of that article is pretty misleading.</p>
<p>Swarthmore spent $83,084 per student last year, not including financial aid. </p>
<p>The average Swarthmore student paid **$32,554 **in tuition, room, and board last year. </p>
<p>That’s pretty good value.</p>
<p>Perceived value is subjective and dependent upon a particular student/family’s experience with the school. Our daughter is a Swarthmore grad. We were a “full-pay” family and do not see Swarthmore as a good buy, despite the letters sent out to parents each year reminding us of how much the college invests in each student. We are paying a similar amount for our second student at another top LAC and are already much happier with the overall experience. However, if you read through the threads, most families seem very happy with their students’ experiences at Swarthmore. Again, very dependent on a particular student/family’s “fit” with the school.</p>
<p>Agree with momof3sons that Swat is only a good value if you get financial aid. We never qualified for financial aid when S1 was a Swat student, but we were pleased with the education & experience he had there.</p>
<p>We are paying even more for S2 at a private university & definitely feel that, in comparison, Swat was much more worth it. I doubt that his school is on the “good value” list.</p>
<p>ID, given how financially vulnerable people feel these days, your response strikes me as pretty insensitive. PR’s ranking takes into account subjective data such as “the quality of students the schools attract as measured by admissions credentials as well as how students rated their academic experiences.” It’s basically a USNews ranking in disguise with a bit more weight given to aid- and endowment-related figures. Indeed, it looks to me like they just shuffled around the top few universities and LACs. </p>
<p>“Best value” seems really inappropriate to describe schools that are out of reach for so many. PR’s list is meaningless for the vast majority of students and almost seems like a slap in the face. “Most Selective,” “Best Financial Aid” is one thing, but honestly… Harvard: best value?? Many parents struggle to pay for Swarthmore, even those who are well-off enough to get their children through without loans. On top of that, any sort of precarious financial situation (e.g. looming job loss, health care concerns, future retirement, etc etc etc) makes things much more stressful. I think these posters were echoing this sentiment. Most Swarthmore students could have gone to hundreds of other schools for much, much cheaper. Parents remember this, and seeing Swarthmore listed as the #1 best value school just looks funny. </p>
<p>Interesteddad, I don’t think anyone was maligning Swarthmore, just pointing out an irony. I really dislike when schools cite figures like yours… it’s disrespectful to the burden that parents take on and really out of touch. On top of that, it just sounds defensive and patronizing.</p>
<p>Ok.</p>
<p>I don’t know any better way to quantify “value” than to at least start by looking at what you pay and what you get. I mean, obviously getting an $83,000 car for $32,000 is better value than getting a $66,000 car for $36,000 (Haverford’s numbers) or a $51,000 car for $29,000 (Oberlin’s numbers).</p>
<p>A lot of people are hesitant to discuss these colleges in dollars and cents terms. Certainly, if you want to talk intagibles at Swarthmore, I’m your guy. I firmly believe that Swarthmore offers the best undergrad educational experience in the United States, bar none – and there are few schools that are even close, even fewer after the market crash wiped out endowments. At the end of the day though, it is a product, there is a cost of providing that product, and there is a price charged for that product (that is not the sticker price on average).</p>
<p>I don’t quite get how this is insensitive to a family struggling to afford college. Swarthmore is actually a very good choice for such a family because of very strong need-based aid funding. The average Swarthmore scholarship last year was over $29,000, meaning that the average financial aid student at Swarthmore (50% of the students) paid under $20,000 for a year of tuition, room, and board. That’s a lot of money, to be sure, but it’s very strong value for an undergrad program that costs $83,000 per student to provide.</p>
<p>Value is relative, in this case relative to other private colleges. Value is also personal. That’s why it’s a bit ridiculous for PR or any outfit to proclaim what the best values in private colleges are. My D has applied and will make a determination about value should she be accepted. I doubt PR’s opinion will carry any weight with her.</p>
<p>interesteddad: I don’t think anyone here is scared of dollars and cents. It’s just that using dollar amounts is inappropriate because small liberal arts colleges suffer from dis-economies of scale. If a luxury company decides to employ the most time-intensive hand-labor manufacturing practices, and then sells the product at a slight loss, does that mean I’m getting tremendous value for my dollar?</p>
<p>More generally, I think measuring value of a private college is kind of disingenuous because one cannot separate value from price, and price varies so much between individual students. The only construct that would make any sense to me would be value by level of income. Swarthmore at zero dollars is probably a great value; Swarthmore at full price might still be a great value, but the range we’re talking about here is enormous.</p>
<p>I don’t think the top liberal arts colleges “suffer” by not having “economies of scale”. To the contrary, I think it is precisely the boutique scale and interactive nature of their undergrad programs that make them so attractive. I agree that the boutique scale is very expensive. I disagree that it is somehow “wasted” money. I think the expense of that boutique scale is precisely the added quality and “value” provided by the top liberal arts colleges. </p>
<p>It’s what, for example, make Swarthmore a better value than UPENN, even though they cost (on average) roughly the same to attend.</p>
<p>It’s not all wasted money, but definitely some is wasted money. Money spent does not correspond exactly with student experience–due to economies of scale, diminishing marginal utility, whatever.</p>
<p>While it is true that it is hard to consider Swarthmore a financial deal due to its high sticker price, it is also true that Swarthmore has about the same sticker price as schools like NYU, Tulane, USC, and with aid probably costs less. At the same time Swarthmore costs more than most public schools, even out of state, and also more than Rice, or Cooper Union. The question is, how can a person weigh the cost, and the quality (or at least quality as measured by rankings?). I am not a huge fan of rankings, but bang for your buck rankings seem like a reasonable use of all that data.</p>