17 New Jersey Colleges Offer Best Value For Money

NEW JERSEY — Even though college enrollment slid during the pandemic, many new students are eager to begin their higher education this fall. Between the high cost of student loan debts and few free tuition programs, money is a big factor for many families, who are looking for affordable and quality education.

Prospective New Jersey college students and their parents now have a new tool and resource to help narrow down their choices: Money’s new “Best Colleges in America, Ranked By Value” report.

And according to this report, 17 Garden State colleges offer quality and affordability. In fact, The New Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark made it to the top 20 national list.

The list includes 671 schools that met Money’s criteria. The full methodology is found on Money’s website, but in short it includes financially sound schools with enrollments of 500 or more students and graduation rates at or above the mean for the category of institution.

The data was sorted in three categories: quality of education; affordability, including the availability of grants and other financial aid; and outcomes, a category that takes a comprehensive look at earnings after graduation, graduates’ economic mobility and a new measure on return on investment using data from the Bipartisan Policy Center.

For students who want to stay in New Jersey to go to college, the following colleges offer the most value, according to the ranking:

Princeton University

• Overall score: 98.46
• Acceptance rate: 6 percent
• Estimated full price, 2022-23: $69,900
• Estimated price with average grant: $19,700
• Percent of students who get grants: 61percent

New Jersey Institute of Technology

• Overall score: 81.81
• Acceptance rate: 66 percent
• Estimated full price, 2022-23: $39,700
• Estimated price with average grant: $19,400
• Percent of students who get grants: 69 percent

Stevens Institute of Technology

• Overall score: 77.73
• Acceptance rate: 53 percent
• Estimated full price, 2022-23: $76,500
• Estimated price with average grant: $42,600
• Percent of students who get grants: 95 percent

College of New Jersey

• Overall score: 77.44
• Acceptance rate: 66 percent
• Estimated full price, 2022-23: $39,700
• Estimated price with average grant: $19,400
• Percent of students who get grants: 69 percent

Rutgers University-New Brunswick

• Overall score: 70.95
• Acceptance rate: 67 percent
• Estimated full price, 2022-23: $33,900
• Estimated price with average grant: $18,800
• Percent of students who get grants: 43 percent

Montclair State University

• Overall score: 69.82
• Acceptance rate: 83 percent
• Estimated full price, 2022-23: $33,000
• Estimated price with average grant: $15,900
• Percent of students who get grants: 54 percent

Stockton University

• Overall score: 69.41
• Acceptance rate: 77 percent
• Estimated full price, 2022-23: $31,200
• Estimated price with average grant: $21,700
• Percent of students who get grants: 63 percent

Ramapo College of New Jersey

• Overall score: 68.10
• Acceptance rate: 67 percent
• Estimated full price, 2022-23: $35,200
• Estimated price with average grant: $18,300
• Percent of students who get grants: 44 percent

Rowan University

• Overall score: 66.59
• Acceptance rate: 78 percent
• Estimated full price, 2022-23: $35,900
• Estimated price with average grant: $26,200
• Percent of students who get grants: 55 percent

Monmouth University

• Overall score: 62.36
• Acceptance rate: 79 percent
• Estimated full price, 2022-23: $62,300
• Estimated price with average grant: $33,400
• Percent of students who get grants: 98 percent

William Paterson University of New Jersey

• Overall score: 62.16
• Acceptance rate: 81 percent
• Estimated full price, 2022-23: $32,200
• Estimated price with average grant: $18,000
• Percent of students who get grants: 64 percent

New Jersey City University

• Overall score: 61.88
• Acceptance rate: 96 percent
• Estimated full price, 2022-23: $36,700
• Estimated price with average grant: $14,800
• Percent of students who get grants: 78 percent

Georgian Court University

• Overall score: 59.62
• Acceptance rate: 81 percent
• Estimated full price, 2022-23: $52,400
• Estimated price with average grant: $21,900
• Percent of students who get grants: 84 percent

Kean University

• Overall score: 59.47
• Acceptance rate: 78 percent
• Estimated full price, 2022-23: $31,000
• Estimated price with average grant: $18,400
• Percent of students who get grants: 66 percent

Seton Hall University

• Overall score: 55.90
• Acceptance rate: 78 percent
• Estimated full price, 2022-23: $66,500
• Estimated price with average grant: $35,500
• Percent of students who get grants: 93 percent

Rider University

• Overall score: 54.82
• Acceptance rate: 76 percent
• Estimated full price, 2022-23: $67,200
• Estimated price with average grant: $31,000
• Percent of students who get grants: 93 percent

Saint Elizabeth University

• Overall score: 53.08
• Acceptance rate: 75 percent
• Estimated full price, 2022-23: $55,300
• Estimated price with average grant: $21,200
• Percent of students who get grants: 74 percent

Money also has a tool that students and parents can use to further narrow down their search and build a customized list that uses its high-value college rankings to create a grouping that best matches a student’s interests. The list can be re-ranked, based on the importance of financial aid and post-graduate earnings, Money said.

Nationally, the Top 10 schools based on value are:

1. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
2. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
3. University of Virginia, Charlottesville
4. Massachusetts Maritime Academy, Buzzards Bay
5. Virginia Military Institute, Lexington
6. Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta
7. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
8. University of Florida, Gainesville
9. University of California, Irvine
10. University of California, Davis

Thank you for reading. Have a correction or news tip? Email sarah.salvadore@patch.com