Rice Named Among Nation's Top 10 Best Value For College

HOUSTON, TX — Rice University is certainly one of the most-respected higher-learning institutions in the country, without a doubt. But a new study released by Kiplinger, the Houston school is one of the best colleges for its value.

Rice is No. 8 in the nation when it comes to colleges with the best value. Determining factors for the rankings include competitiveness, graduation rates, academic support, cost and financial aid, low student debt and eventual earning potential.

Rice tops all Texas institutions on the list with Trinity University in San Antonio coming in next at No. 81. UT-Austin checks in at No. 126, followed by Southwestern University (158) and Austin College (164). Other major schools in Texas include Baylor (209), Texas A&M (226) and Southern Methodist (237). The University of Houston is ranked No. 276 in the nation.

Princeton University tops the overall list, followed by Davidson (N.C.) College, Swarthmore College (Penn.), Harvard and Duke.

To derive the rankings, Kiplinger.com comes up its best values, starting with data on nearly 1,200 public and private four-year schools provided by Peterson's, and then add its own reporting. They narrow the list based on measures of academic quality, and then rank each school using cost and financial aid measures.

As for potential salary for students, here's what the site reads:

"To offer a glimpse of what your child’s payday may look like a decade after starting college, we show the median earnings of workers who started at a particular college 10 years earlier and who received federal financial aid. The figures come from the U.S. Department of Education. The data don’t consider whether the workers graduated from college or went on to graduate school, nor do they reflect salary differences between those who studied, say, English rather than engineering. Because of these limitations, we don’t include the salary figures in calculating each school’s rank. Still, the information offers a way to gauge earnings outcomes at various schools and a starting point for your estimates."

Here's the facts page for Rice, which includes annual tuition at $44,900, total cost per year including books, fees and room and board at $60,658, and a salary yardstick at $64,300.

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