Five MA Colleges Make National "Best Value" List

The Princeton Review has released its annual list of 50 colleges that offer the "best value" for the money spent on tuition and other expenses, and five Massachusetts schools made the list, including three that hit the Top 10.

The Review's annual guidebook, released Tuesday, is meant to help students looking for colleges that are not only academic standouts but also prepare them for rewarding careers. The guidebook features 200 schools in all, rated in seven categories including academics, cost, financial aid, career services, graduation rates, student debt and alumni support.

Only the top 50 colleges are included in the "best value" ranking, and five are in the Bay State: No. 4 MIT, No. 5 Williams College, No. 8 Harvard, No. 17 Amherst College and No. 30 Worcester Polytechnic.

The Princeton Review, an education services company, selected the 200 schools based on data from surveys of administrators at more than 650 colleges in 2017-18. The listings also factored in student and alumni surveys on starting and mid-career salaries and on job satisfaction.

“Only 7 percent of the nation’s four-year colleges made it into this book,” lead author Robert Franek said in a release. “We salute them for their stellar academics and generous aid awards to students based on need and/or merit. They also provide their undergrads with career services from day one plus strong networks of alumni connections.”

California Institute of Technology claimed the No. 1 spot on the main ranking list, followed by Stanford University and Princeton University. Here are the top 10 best value colleges:

1. California Institute of Technology — Pasadena, CA
2. Stanford University — Stanford, CA
3. Princeton University — Princeton, NJ
4. Massachusetts Institute of Technology — Cambridge, MA
5. Williams College — Williamstown, MA
6. Harvey Mudd College — Claremont, CA
7. Yale University — New Haven, CT
8. Harvard College — Cambridge, MA
9. The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art — New York, NY
10. University of Virginia — Charlottesville, VA

Other Massachusetts colleges among the 200 featured in the guidebook are UMass-Amherst, Babson College, Northeastern University, Boston College, Stonehill College, Tufts University, the Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering, Smith College, Wheaton College, Mount Holyoke, Bentley, Brandeis and Clark universities, Wellesley and Holy Cross.

Patch national staffer Dan Hampton contributed to this report.

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