Dartmouth ranked ninth nationally and second in the Ivy League in a new survey assessing schools by their financial value.
The "Best Values" survey is a new ranking devised by U.S. News & World Report to provide students with a reliable measure relating the cost of a college to the quality of education. The survey will appear in a special section on college financing in the October 3 issue that will hit newsstands Monday.
Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid Karl Furstenberg said the survey confirms the quality of education at the College, as indicated by the eighth place ranking in the same magazine's survey of the best national universities.
The best values ranking was determined using four variables to calculate the "discounted price" of a college's tuition. The school's quality ranking, as determined by the magazine's annual ranking of national universities and liberal arts colleges, was divided by the costs paid by the average student receiving a need based grant.
The survey also took into account the percentage of undergraduate students receiving need based grants and merit awards. The report then determined the percentage of a school's total costs that had been discounted for the average undergraduate receiving financial aid.
The school's overall rank was determined by converting each of the four variables into percentiles. Only schools that finished in the top half of the U.S. News annual survey of national universities and liberal arts colleges were considered in the new survey. The top 20 percent of regional colleges were also included.
The discounted price at the College was $12,809, approximately 50 percent less than the "sticker price" paid by students not receiving financial aid. According to the survey, Dartmouth's average need-based grant was $13,030 and more than forty percent of students received a need-based grant.
Furstenberg said Dartmouth's wide range of resources allows the College to admit the best students regardless of their ability to pay.
"I think a big benefit of the survey is that its says to students that their chances of getting in are not influenced by their ability to pay," said Furstenberg. "Dartmouth puts a lot of money into financial aid and this means that for all students, regardless of whether or not they receive financial aid, they will be going to school with the brightest."
The California Institute of Technology is considered the best value among national universities. The discounted tuition cost is $12,114, with a 50 percent reduction for students receiving need-based aid. Grinnell College in Iowa has a discounted tuition cost of $10,484 and is rated the best value among national liberal arts colleges.
Rice University, University of Rochester, Columbia University, Stanford University, Northwestern University, University of Chicago and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, all finished ahead of Dartmouth with Yale finishing tenth.
Columbia was ranked first in the Ivy League followed by Dartmouth, Yale, the University of Pennsylvania, Harvard University, Cornell University, Princeton University and Brown University.
