22 Virginia Schools Make Money’s Best Colleges By Value Ranking

VIRGINIA — With the price of everything from cars to groceries climbing, prospective Virginia college students and their parents looking for affordability and high quality have a resource to help narrow down their choices: Money’s new “Best Colleges in America, Ranked By Value” report.

Twenty-two Virginia colleges made the list, with two schools in the top 10 nationally.

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 Virginia to go to college, the following colleges offer the most value, according to the ranking:

University of Virginia, Charlottesville

• No. 3
• Overall score: 86.11
• Acceptance rate: 23 percent
• Estimated full price, 2022-23: $36,700
• Estimated price with average grant: $20,100
• Percent of students who get grants: 48 percent

Virginia Military Institute, Lexington

• No. 5
• Overall score: 85.14
• Acceptance rate: 60 percent
• Estimated full price, 2022-23: $33,300
• Estimated price with average grant: $20,000
• Percent of students who get grants: 85 percent

Washington and Lee University, Lexington

• No. 11
• Overall score: 82.39
• Acceptance rate: 25 percent
• Estimated full price, 2022-23: $79,800
• Estimated price with average grant: $28,700
• Percent of students who get grants: 61 percent

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg

• No. 22
• Overall score: 80.97
• Acceptance rate: 66 percent
• Estimated full price, 2022-23: $28,500
• Estimated price with average grant: $21,400
• Percent of students who get grants: 57 percent

George Mason University, Fairfax

• No. 72
• Overall score: 74.68
• Acceptance rate: 89 percent
• Estimated full price, 2022-23: $30,800
• Estimated price with average grant: $19,300
• Percent of students who get grants: 59 percent

James Madison University, Harrisonburg

• No. 86
• Overall score: 73.37
• Acceptance rate: 80 percent
• Estimated full price, 2022-23: $29,600
• Estimated price with average grant: $19,600
• Percent of students who get grants: 35 percent

William & Mary, Williamsburg

• No. 104
• Overall score: 72.47
• Acceptance rate: 42 percent
• Estimated full price, 2022-23: $41,200
• Estimated price with average grant: $19,600
• Percent of students who get grants: 48 percent

University of Richmond, Richmond

• No. 137
• Overall score: 70.50
• Acceptance rate: 31 percent
• Estimated full price, 2022-23: $74,500
• Estimated price with average grant: $27,100
• Percent of students who get grants: 72 percent

Other Virginia colleges on the list are:

• No. 296, Radford University, Radford
• No. 306, Eastern Mennonite University, Harrisonburg
• No. 315, Christopher Newport University, Newport News
• No. 386, Longwood University, Farmville
• No. 443, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond
• No. 470, University of Mary Washington, Fredericksburg
• No. 483, Regent University, Virginia Beach
• No. 501, University of Lynchburg, Lynchburg
• No. 509, Hampden-Sydney College, Hampden-Sydney
• No. 511, Randolph-Macon College, Ashland
• No. 519, Marymount University, Arlington
• No. 532, Roanoke College, Salem
• No. 610, Virginia State University, Petersburg
• No. 618, Hampton University, Hampton

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