Kiplinger's Rates Baylor Among Best Private College Values

January 7, 2009
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Media contact: Lori Fogleman, director of media communications, (254) 710-6275

For the second consecutive year, Baylor University has been ranked as one of the nation's top 50 "Best Values in Private Colleges and Universities," according to findings published in the February 2009 edition of Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine.

Using a ranking system that measured academic quality and affordability, Kiplinger's rated Baylor overall as the 40th "best value" among the nation's most prestigious private colleges. In the area of "total cost" for an academic year - including tuition, mandatory fees, room and board, and estimated expenses for books - Baylor again was the nation's second most affordable school among the top 50 rated by Kiplinger's.

Baylor was ranked as a better value than some of the other top universities on Kiplinger's list, including Carnegie Mellon, NYU, Boston University and Syracuse. Baylor also was one of only three Texas universities to make the top 50.

To view the full rankings, go to https://www.kiplinger.com/tools/privatecolleges.

Kiplinger's began its survey with data on more than 600 private institutions provided by Peterson's Undergraduate Database. To determine each category, the magazine used the Carnegie classification system, which organizes institutions based on the highest level and number of degrees offered. Kiplinger's rankings measured universities on several factors, including admission rate, test scores, student/faculty ratio, four- and five-year graduation rate, total costs, cost after need-based aid, aid from grants, cost after non-need-based aid, non-need-based aid and average debt at graduation.

Founded in 1920 by W.M. Kiplinger, the company developed one of the nation's first successful newsletters in modern times. The Kiplinger Letter, launched in 1923, remains the longest continually published newsletter in the United States. In 1947, Kiplinger's created the nation's first personal finance magazine.

For more information about applying to Baylor, go to www.baylor.edu/admissions.