HARRISONBURG — After falling out of the top 25 last year, James Madison University has regained several spots on Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine’s “Best Values in Public Colleges” list, coming in at No. 20 for 2013.
The magazine determines the top 100 schools that are a “best value” based on quality and affordability factors, including SAT or ACT scores, admission, retention and four-year graduation rates, total cost and graduates’ average debt.
Two Virginia schools — University of Virginia and College of William and Mary — ranked higher than JMU, landing at the number two and four spots, respectively.
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill topped the list this year for the 12th time.
Other schools in the state that made the list behind JMU are Virginia Tech, the University of Mary Washington, George Mason University and Christopher Newport University.
“At a time when the cost of education has gone up, a lot of that burden has transitioned a lot to the students and their families,” said JMU spokesman Don Egle. “It’s very important that colleges and universities provide the value they promise in terms of the education they offer.”
JMU’s 20th place on the list puts it one spot behind its 2011 ranking. In 2012, the university fell back to 28th.
When last year’s data came out, Egle said that while JMU’s numbers remained consistent between 2011 and 2012, the drop on the list the university experienced between those years was likely due to other institutions’ changing data.
This year, costs to attend JMU rose, as did the average net price for in-state students at institutions across the nation, an article from Kiplinger’s accompanying the list, points out.
But JMU remained consistent in admissions rate and four-year graduation rates and gained a couple of spots among the 100 institutions in cost.
On the list, “academic quality is more heavily weighted than costs,” according to Kiplinger’s website.
To form the list, Kiplinger’s begins by looking at data from nearly 600 four-year public schools. Based on academic quality measures, such as admission and retention rates, the list is narrowed to about 130 schools.
Schools are then ranked according to cost and financial aid.
The university’s in-state cost is now $18,314 and out-of-state cost is $32,302, according to Kiplinger’s own calculation.
With need-based financial aid figured in, in-state students pay an average of $11,404 for a year at JMU, and students from outside Virginia pay $25,392.
Those numbers include tuition and fees, room and board and estimated book expenses.
According to College Board, across the nation the average sticker price for students to attend an in-state school is $17,860 and out-of-state students pay $30,911. The average net cost of an in-state education, which is the sticker price minus financial aid, has risen for the third year in a row, according to Kiplinger’s.
Average debt after graduation at JMU is now $22,128, up $1,700 from last year, landing JMU at 43rd lowest for debt, according to the list.
“JMU specifically has been very consistent especially in the areas of value and efficiency,” Egle said. “We’re pleased to be included.”
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