CU among 3 Colorado colleges considered ‘best value’ by Kiplinger

Three of Colorado’s public colleges ranked among the top 100 of Kiplinger’s Best Values in Public Colleges 2011 list.

The Colorado School of Mines, Golden, was the top-ranked Colorado public school on the list, coming in at No. 59 out of 120 for in-state value and No. 65 for out-of-state value.

The University of Colorado, Boulder, was ranked 85th for its in-state costs and 97th for out-of-state costs, followed by Colorado State University, Fort Collins, ranked 90th and 99th for in-state and out-of-state costs, respectively.

According to Kiplinger's, the ranking is based on a combination of academics and affordability, using the data from Peterson’s/Nelnet on more than 500 public four-year schools. Kiplinger's narrowed the list to about 120 schools based on measures of academic quality including SAT or ACT scores, admission and retention rates, student-faculty ratios, and four- and six-year graduation rates, which most schools reported for the class that entered in 2003.

Then Kiplinger's ranked each school based on cost and financial aid, giving more weight to academic quality than costs, the latter of which includes total expenses for in-state students (tuition, mandatory fees, room and board, and books); the average cost for a student with need after subtracting grants (but not loans); the average cost for a student without need after subtracting non-need-based grants; the average percentage of need met by aid; and the average debt per student at graduation. To determine out-of-state rankings, Kiplinger's ran the academic-quality and expense numbers again, this time using total costs for out-of-state residents and average costs after aid.

Here’s a look at how the three Colorado colleges that appear on Kiplinger’s Best Values in Public Colleges 2011 list compare with the top three-ranked institutions: