IU ranks 28th in best value for public colleges

Despite budget cuts, IU Bloomington ranks 28th overall in the “100 Best Values in Public Colleges” for 2009-2010 according to Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine.

This is the first time IU is in the top 30 and the University is also third among Big Ten universities.

The ranking was on Kiplinger’s Web site in January, and the results will be published in its February issue.

According to the article, as recession forces state governments to slash state funding for higher education among public state universities, the universities have to tailor their operational budgets while dealing with higher enrollment.

IU Vice Provost for Enrollment Management Roger Thompson said in a press release that despite the challenges budget cuts create, IU will continue to provide academic excellence while remaining accessible and affordable.

Jane Bennett Clark, senior associate editor of Kiplinger, said in an article on Kiplinger’s Web site that the 100 ranked public colleges are ones that “deliver strong academics at affordable prices” in spite of pervasive budget cuts in the nation.

Purdue University came 46th  overall.. IU and Purdue were the only two public universities in Indiana that received ranking nomination.

Kiplinger awarded rankings by considering academics and affordability of each university.

The rankings started with more than 500 four-year public colleges and then downsized based on their academic qualities such as SAT or ACT scores, admission and retention rates and student to faculty ratios.

Kiplinger then took cost and financial aid into account. It also looked at in-state and out-of-state situations separately.

The costs of in-state students are estimated by looking at expenses including in-state tuition, mandatory fees, room and board and textbook costs.

According to the statistics collected in the complete ranking, in-state students in Bloomington average $16,951 without financial aid.

 Also, Kiplinger considered factors such as the average in-state cost for a student after subtracting grants and other forms of aid.

An out-of-state IU student averages $34,498 in total cost.

“I definitely consider IU as ‘good value,’” said junior Naveed Hasan, who is an out-of-state student from California. “I believe my money has been well spent.”

Though costs have been important as the recession impacts families and students, Kiplinger still weighs academics more.  The top-ranked University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill stays on top of Kiplinger’s list consistently with three-fourths or more of its incoming freshmen scoring higher than 600 on both the verbal and math SAT tests, according to the article.

The improving results in entrance exams and retention and graduation rates contribute to IU’s upward mobility on the list, Clark said in a press release.

James Walker, professor in Department of Economics, said he considers IU a good value because he has had a valuable experience during his 25 years teaching at IU.

“Over the past 10 years or so, it has not been unusual for me to hear from honors students just how great their experience at IU has been,” Walker said. “They point to the wealth of opportunities they have had as students.”