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Boston College placed 23rd on the Kiplinger’s Personal Finance 2014 annual listing of the nation’s best values in private colleges and universities, a one-point improvement over last year’s ranking of 24th.
Kiplinger’s compiles its listing of 100 private universities and 100 liberal arts colleges annually based on high-quality academics at a reasonable cost. Kiplinger’s says its selected schools exemplify the attributes parents and students look for in higher education, including small class size, a good freshman retention rate and a high four-year graduation rate.
"With President Obama’s recent emphasis on rating colleges and universities based on their value, our rankings serve as a valuable resource to help students and families make more informed choices," said Janet Bodnar, editor of Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine. "Combining a high-quality education with an affordable price tag is a challenge, but the colleges on this year’s list offer the best of both worlds."
Kiplinger’s rankings measure academic quality and affordability. Academic criteria include the student admission rate, the test scores of incoming freshmen, the ratio of students to faculty, and four- and five-year graduation rates. On the cost side, Kiplinger’s measures the sticker price, the availability and average amount of need-based and merit-based financial aid, and the average student debt at graduation. Boston College and several of the schools on the top 100 list have appeared in Kiplinger’s ranking since its inception.
"We are pleased that Kiplinger’s has again recognized Boston College as a best-value private university based on our commitment to need-blind admissions and to meeting the full demonstrated need of our students," said Bernard Pekala, director of student financial strategies and enrollment at Boston College. "This ranking, coupled with our listing in the U.S. News "Great Schools Great Prices" survey, reflects our ongoing effort at making a BC education accessible to students from all socio-economic backgrounds."