Colleges with the Most Bang For the Buck

• Author: William Asher
• Posted: 2023-12-01

It can be extremely difficult to compare to colleges to one another and see which one has more value compared to the other. The good news is that the Princeton Review has found that the most cost efficient schools are Williams College and University of North Carolina located at Chapel Hill.

There isn't a major gap for the next few schools on the list in terms of financial value, but it is definitely there. After those two schools, the next three most cost efficient schools are University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, North Carolina State University, and the New College of Florida.

Financial Aid Plays a Major Part

A lot of what determines the overall financial value of each individual school is the amount of money that the school gives out in financial aid. Here's an example. The University of North Carolina generally costs a little over 17,000 dollars a year. Compared to Williams college, which costs around 59,000 dollars a year, you might be wondering how it ended up on this type of list.

The answer is through the difference in the amount of financial aid given. On average, Williams College gives out around 40,000 dollars in grants to the average freshman each year. This lowers the net year cost drastically. The University of North Carolina also gives out around 14,000 dollars a year in scholarships to new freshmen.

With these numbers in mind, it's easy to see why a yearly survey conducted to poll families on how important financial aid for college is going to be found that more than three quarters of families said that it would be extremely important. Those results were found in 2009. Unfortunately, that number has continued to increase since then.

Students May Pay More Than Projected

A lot of experts are saying that a significant number of students are going to find that the price of their college may be significantly higher than what is considered the average as well. Since the schools themselves are the ones that gather and broadcast the average cost of their education, there is a little bit of room for them to modify their numbers.

There are a lot of colleges around today, and there can be some pretty stiff competition between them. As a result, some colleges will try to make their prices seem a little lower than they are in the hopes of drawing more students. Colleges usually don't change the actual costs of anything, but they have been known to leave certain things out. Things like the rent in the surrounding area and the cost of textbooks.

Students going to college soon should always take the estimates given by colleges with a reasonable amount of wariness. Try to consider all the expenses you're going to need each year by looking at the surrounding area and thinking about your budget. Then compare it to the number that the college is saying that you're likely going to have to pay. That way, there are no surprise expenses that ruin your budget.