The Princeton Review ranked UW-Madison No. 9 for ""Best Value College"" in the 2008 edition of its annual book, ""America's Best Value Colleges,"" claiming UW-Madison ""offers an essential education at rock-bottom rates.""
Senior Editor of ""America's Best Value Colleges"" Adrinda Kelly said the review looked at 650 colleges across the country and identified 30 factors that were applied to each of the universities. The universities were then narrowed down to the top 165, which are the schools that actually appear in the book.
Kelly said the 30 factors covered academics, tuition and financial aid, but also student feedback collected through The Princeton Review's annual student survey.
""A ‘Best Value' school is going to be one that you can afford and one that doesn't put you into a ton of debt at graduation but is also going to offer a well-rounded academic experience and basic student life experience for its students,"" Kelly said.
The review praised UW-Madison for offering hundreds of student organizations and said the school ""has long been one of the best research institutions in the country.""
The review notes the university's 41,000-plus students, 933-acre campus and 150 majors, but says despite the vastness of the school, ""It's hard to find a student body more loyal,"" recognizing that, ""On football game days, everything is about Badger Pride.""
UW-Madison also has a 94-percent retention rate as of 2005-'06.
Another factor that contributed to UW-Madison's No. 9 ranking was its ""generous financial aid program,"" WISC-TV reported.
Kelly said the review looks at each university's average indebtedness of graduating seniors, the percentage of student need that is met by financial aid packages and other ""out of pocket"" costs, such as room and board and book costs, that don't get factored into the ""sticker price.""
According to The Princeton Review website, 29 percent of freshmen and 31 percent of undergrads at UW-Madison receive need-based financial aid.
Michelle Curtis, associate director of the Office for Student Financial Services, said that as a whole, the university has a relatively low average graduating debt load, and is the second-lowest priced school for resident tuition in the Big Ten.
UW-Madison Director of University Communications John Lucas said he thinks it is great publications still see the university as a good value and a high quality education.
Lucas said UW-Madison's strengths range from its quality of academic programs to its quality of life, to ""just simply being in Madison instead of Minnesota or the middle of Iowa.""
