The following, in my view, are top-value colleges. In addition to a relatively low sticker price, they score well, on average, on these criteria: student quality, location, a campus culture that welcomes true diversity of ideas (not just politically correct ones), and a name that opens career doors. The larger institutions, which I've starred, do suffer from being research-first/students-second institutions, but their low price and desirability on other factors justifies their inclusion.
* Rice: A Big-Oil endowment has created an Ivy-clone college at half the price.
* UCLA: The honors program is a patch of Ivy at a State U price.
Mary Washington College: Like a small private college at a public price--in a Jeffersonian setting an hour from D.C.
* McGill: A great city (Montreal), strong students, and the Canadian 69-cent dollar makes McGill a deal.
* University of Toronto: Easier to get into than McGill.
* Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. California weather, excellent students in its strong majors (e.g., architecture, engineering), $1,500 annual tuition. Safe, quaint town.
* University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill: Good students, ideal location, great basketball tradition, bargain price.
* University of Virginia: Top students in a Jeffersonian setting replete with colonnades and rolling lawns.
* Santa Monica College: A nearly free two-year college that feeds many students to UCLA and Berkeley. Near the beach and L.A.
You can save the money on undergraduate education without shortchanging the child. That way you'll have money left for graduate school.
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