Emory University has been named to The Princeton Review‘s annual list of “2013 Best Value Colleges,” marking Emory’s fifth appearance on the list in the last six years.
The list, which was published in USA Today on Feb. 5 compiles 75 of the best-value private schools and 75 best-value public schools in the U.S. out of 2,000 potential colleges and universities.
The Princeton Review ranks the top 10 schools in each category. The additional schools are added to a list in alphabetical order.
Although Emory did not make the top 10, their inclusion in the list speaks highly of the value Emory provides to its students, according to Rob Franek, author of The Princeton Review‘s “Best Value Colleges.”
“Emory is providing a student experience that is compelling and engaging in the classroom and provides an excellent campus culture for students,” Franek said.
Franek added that even though Emory excels in the student experience through its dormitories, student services and world-class facilities, its ability to make tuition affordable to the average family is what truly makes it a best value.
“We have a great, longtime narrative with Emory not just because we have been writing about [Emory] for a long time but because our opinion of [the] university is so high,” Franek said.
According to Franek, he and a team of data specialists analyzed 30 data points which were broken up into three categories: academics, tuition and financial aid.
“We didn’t just want to call [the list] 150 cheap colleges,” said Franek. “We wanted to make sure these schools were not only great financial values for students but they were spot-on education values, and students felt engaged in the classroom.”
Franek said his analysts wanted to determine how aggressive Emory and other universities are in working to offset the tuition price through distributing financial aid and in what form that aid comes in, whether it be grants, loans or work study.
“Emory is a good example of a school that if admitted, the university says we want financial aid not to be an issue for you,” said Franek. “We want to make sure we can meet your need 100%. Not every school is as superlative as Emory in their effort.”
According to a Feb. 12 University press release, “Emory is consistently identified as a best value among private universities and colleges – those institutions that are both academically strong and affordable.”
Emory was named to The Princeton Review list in 2012, 2011, 2009 and 2008.
Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine recently ranked Emory as the 15th “best value” out of 100 private universities in October 2012.
– By Dustin Slade
The Emory Wheel was founded in 1919 and is currently the only independent, student-run newspaper of Emory University. The Wheel publishes weekly on Wednesdays during the academic year, except during University holidays and scheduled publication intermissions.
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“Emory is providing a student experience that is compelling and engaging in the classroom and provides an excellent campus culture for students.” Totally! Unless you want to do learn about journalism, education, or the visual arts. Then maybe 56,000$ a year of your parent’s money or a few decades of debt on your own shoulders might not be such a “value” at all. But frankly if you’re making your college education decision based upon a proprietary metric formulated by the Princeton Review — a for-profit business run by a private equity firm — you probably deserve what you get, and Emory is more than happy to sell it to you.
I swear, you guys can find a way to turn the topic of anything into the budget cuts.
What these rankings say is “Emory does its best to make sure that financial aid isn’t an issue.” You guys scream “zomg, budget cuts are hurting the students.”
Well, make a decision then, do you guys want to keep the Emory Advantage program (which is why the college was losing money for the last few years), or cut programs which Emory doesn’t excel. It’s a hard decision, but I would rather keep the Advantage program.
Emory Advantage program has seen a steady restriction in availability. Read the article in last month’s NYT for details. Also, Emory is moving away from need-blind financial aid – Oxford already has.
For sure! Plus it is easier to keep the Advantage program going when the university falsifies data to keep needy students from qualifying for additional aid: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/23/education/poor-students-struggle-as-class-plays-a-greater-role-in-success.html?pagewanted=7