These 4 North Jersey Colleges Among Best Value For The Money

Four North Jersey colleges made MONEY magazine's list of colleges that are a good bang for your buck.

Money ranked 727 of the best colleges based on quality of education, affordability and outcomes. And while the usual suspects topped the list, 21 New Jersey colleges made the cut. Only Drew University was left off the list.

Four North Jersey institutions made the list. Here they are, and their overall ranks:

• Ramapo College of New Jersey, Mahwah (No. 113)
• Fairleigh Dickinson University-Metropolitan Campus, Teaneck (No. 448)
• William Paterson University, Wayne (No. 491)
• Felician University, Lodi (No. 494)

Princeton University was ranked No. 1. in the country.

Money pared down its rankings by only including institutions that had at least 500 students, had sufficient, reliable data that could be analyzed, and weren't strapped for cash. The colleges also had graduation rates that were at least the median for its institutional category — public, private or historically black college or university — or had a high "value-added" graduation rate.

Click here to see the full rankings.

Patch national reporters Dan Hampton and Tom Davis contributed to this article.

Email: daniel.hubbard@patch.com

Image by Brian A. Jackson, via Shutterstock