12 CA Schools Among Best Value Colleges: Princeton Review

CALIFORNIA — When it comes to college, many potential students choose a school where they can get the most for their money.

Princeton Review this month released its 2020 list of the 200 best value colleges and categorized them based on a 2018-19 survey of administrators at 656 colleges. The Princeton Review also factored in data from its surveys of students attending the colleges as well as PayScale.com surveys of school alumni about their starting and mid-career salaries and job satisfaction. Seven "value categories" were defined:

• Top 75 Best Value Colleges
• Top 25 Best Value Colleges for Students With No Demonstrated Need
• Top 25 Best Alumni Networks
• Top 25 Best Schools for Internships
• Top 25 Best Career Placement
• Top 25 Best Schools for Financial Aid
• Top 25 Best Schools for Making an Impact

Of the total 200 colleges, 137 are private and 63 are public. Schools on the lists reflect 7 percent of colleges across the country and offer the best return on investment for students, according to the research.

In the researchers' list of the 75 Top Value Colleges in the nation, the following California schools made this year’s cut (listed by ranking):

#3 Harvey Mudd College, Claremont, CA

#4 Stanford University, Stanford, CA

#5 California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA

#10 University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA

#17 Pomona College, Claremont, CA

#22 Claremont McKenna College, Claremont, CA

#23 University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA

#36 University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA

#39 University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA

#73 University of California, Davis, Davis, CA

#74 University of California, Riverside, Riverside, CA

#75 Thomas Aquinas College, Santa Paula, CA

Among the 200 colleges included on this year’s list:

• The average grant to students with need is $29,748.
• The median starting salary of graduates is $60,824.
• The mid-career salary of graduates is $117,583.

Among the 63 public colleges on this year’s list:

• The average net cost of attendance (sticker price minus average grant) for in-state students receiving need-based aid is $12,944.
• The average admission rate is 53 percent.
• 14 of the colleges admit more than 70 percent of applicants.

The first edition of The Princeton Review's “Best Value Colleges” book, published in 2004, was inspired by findings of the company's 2003 College Hopes & Worries Survey, a project that annually polls college applicants and their parents about their application perspectives and concerns.

In the 17 years that The Princeton Review has conducted the survey, concerns about college costs continue to rise each year. Among the findings of the 2019 survey: 88 percent of the 11,900 respondents said financial aid would be "very" or “extremely" necessary to pay for college — a substantial increase from the 78 percent of respondents who indicated such levels of need in 2007.