A year ago, private colleges were struggling to navigate rough economic waters. Then they headed into the hurricane. Endowments plunged along with the stock market. Families whose savings had sunk or whose home equity had disappeared began rethinking plans to send their kids to private schools.
Students who applied to private institutions, or who hoped to return, asked for financial aid in greater numbers and requested larger amounts. With resources tight for both parents and colleges, "it was a very scary time all around," said Barmak Nassirian of the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers.
But here's the surprise: In many cases, students who applied to colleges for the 2009-10 academic year actually received more financial help than the previous year's applicants.
Independent colleges boosted financial aid by 9% while keeping tuition increases -- an average of 4.3% -- to their lowest levels in four decades. (Yet still raising the average cost of a year at a private school to about $35,600.) Some schools, worried about competition from public institutions, accepted more applicants. And many vigorously pruned expenses. Result? Families found private college still affordable, and enrollments generally have held steady. David Warren, the president of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, said, "What we're seeing is a well-weathered storm."
To find schools that have weathered the storm especially well, look to Kiplinger's 100 best values in private colleges and universities for 2009-10. These institutions, led by Pomona College among liberal-arts colleges and California Institute of Technology among universities, provide a top-quality education at an affordable price -- usually because of generous financial aid.
Think you earn too much to qualify for financial aid? You might be pleasantly surprised. In recent years, most top-tier colleges and universities have extended financial aid almost exclusively to students in need. A few of the top 20 institutions in our rankings, however, bestow merit money to a significant percentage of students. Davidson, Whitman and Grinnell, on the liberal-arts side, and Rice, Stanford, Emory, Vanderbilt and the University of Richmond, among universities, offer scholarships to at least 20% of their undergraduates. Grinnell awards aid to an impressive 61%.
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Delivering real value
Kiplinger's definition of value starts with academic quality. Each year, we choose schools that are competitive enough to attract bright students and strong enough to keep them. Unlike other rankings, ours use numeric, not subjective, measures to determine quality.We also look at costs, including the price of attending the institution, as well as its generosity in giving financial aid. Strange as it may seem to call a school that charges, say, $50,000 a year, a good value, many of our top-ranked institutions give enough aid -- often in the form of grants -- to bring the average price to as little as half or less of the sticker price. Because liberal-arts colleges concentrate on undergraduates and universities extend their mission to graduate students, we separate our top 100 into two lists. But we apply the same academic and financial criteria to both categories.
This year's top 100 private colleges and universities have met the challenges of a slumping economy with brio, delivering quality, generous financial aid and, in a few cases, prices almost as low as out-of-state tuition at some public institutions.
Caltech, in Pasadena, Calif., which heads the list of private universities for the fourth time running, and Pomona, in Claremont, Calif., which leads the liberal-arts list for the second consecutive year, might be the past and current crown jewels, but gems appear throughout our rankings.
On the liberal-arts side, Swarthmore, outside Philadelphia, edges out Williams, in Williamstown, Mass., for the No. 2 spot, in part because of the significant merit aid it awards a few students. Both schools attract outstanding students and offer enough need-based aid to make the education affordable to families with limited resources.
Princeton, Harvard and Yale, on the university side, also offer ample need-based aid and have stretched the definition of need to include families with higher incomes. At Yale, where total costs run $48,450 per year, families pay an average of 10% of their income.
Some schools in our rankings simply offer a good education at a good price. Wheaton, Wofford, College of St. Benedict, Hillsdale, Knox and Thomas Aquinas, on the liberal-arts list, manage to keep total annual costs below $40,000. Among universities, Elon, Creighton, Whitworth, Bradley, the University of Tulsa and Gonzaga also have sticker prices of less than $40,000. College of St. Benedict, in St. Joseph, Minn., and Bradley University, in Peoria, Ill., are both new to the top 100.
Cutting cost, not quality
Like many schools, Pomona has coped with reduced endowment revenue (down 22% from June 2008 to June 2009) and greater financial need by cutting expenses. The college froze salaries across the board, offered voluntary retirement packages to nonacademic employees and cut back on nonessentials, such as catering for administration events. As a member of the five-college Claremont consortium, Pomona is able to save money by sharing resources, including professors, across campuses.Despite the cuts, Pomona provides its students with a top-quality education in a setting that snowbound Ivy Leaguers can only dream of. This small school, with about 1,500 students, faces the San Gabriel Mountains and basks in the Southern California sun. Almost all of its freshmen return for their sophomore year, a sure sign of happy campers, and 90% of its seniors graduate on time, sparing the expense of a fifth year. As for financial aid, if you need it, you get it. The average financial-aid package brings the $50,568 sticker price down to a modest $16,454.
About 25 miles west of Pomona College, students at Caltech enjoy an equally sun-saturated setting, along with the ultimate in academic nurturing: a student-faculty ratio of 3-to-1, the lowest on either list. At Caltech, 100% of incoming freshmen scored more than 700 on the math section of the SAT. Thanks to small classes and a compact campus, these left-brainers have plenty of opportunity to soak up each other's smarts as well as the wisdom of an elite faculty that includes five Nobel Prize winners.
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But it doesn't take a math whiz to figure out that Caltech provides a great deal as well as great academics. The school charges a relatively low $46,629, and it knocks more than half off, on average, for students who qualify for need-based aid. It also offers merit scholarships, although those are being phased out, said Caltech President Jean-Lou Chameau. Students graduate with an average debt of $9,871, the second-lowest on our universities list. (Princeton leads in that category: Its students walk away with an average debt of less than $6,000.)
Caltech's endowment did not emerge from the recession unscathed, but the hit could have been worse. It lost about 20% over the 12 months that ended in September, compared with Harvard's 27.3% haircut and Yale's 24.6% drop (as of June 30). The school responded to the downturn by cutting administrative costs and postponing long-term projects, but it continued to hire faculty members and maintain financial aid. Last spring, applicants enthusiastically responded to Caltech's efforts, accepting admission in record numbers. Chameau said the school has no problem squeezing in a few more students. "We will accommodate them, and they will be happy here."
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