CHARLOTTE, N.C., March 31, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Value Colleges (http://www.valuecolleges.com), an independent online guide to the best values in undergraduate and graduate college education, has released its first annual Top 50 Best Value Colleges ranking at http://www.valuecolleges.com/rankings/best-value-colleges/.

With the Top 50 Best Value Colleges ranking, Value Colleges has developed a well-researched and considered list of the best college values, top performing, regionally accredited schools that give the highest returns for the lowest costs.

Our list ranks schools using the following criteria to find a balance between financial and educational priorities:

*20-year net ROI
*Graduation rate
*Average debt

Information was compiled from payscale.com, The Princeton Review, and IPEDS.

Schools making the list include (in alphabetical order):

Amherst College - Amherst, MA

Boston College - Boston, MA

Brandeis University, Waltham, MA

Brown University - Providence, RI

Bucknell University - Lewisburg, PA

California Institute of Technology - Pasadena, CA

Clemson University - Clemson, SC

Colgate University - Hamilton, NY

College of William and Mary - Williamsburg, VA

Columbia University - New York, NY

Cornell University - Ithaca, NY

Dartmouth College - Hanover, NH

Duke University - Durham, NC

Emory University - Atlanta, GA

George Mason University - Fairfax, VA

Georgia Institute of Technology - Atlanta, GA

Harvard University - Cambridge, MA

Harvey Mudd College - Claremont, CA

James Madison University - Harrisonburg, VA

Johns Hopkins University - Baltimore, MD

Lafayette College - Easton, PA

Massachusetts Institute of Technology - Cambridge, MA

Missouri Tech - Saint Charles, MO

Princeton University - Princeton, NJ

Rice University - Houston, TX

Smith College - Northampton, MA

Stanford University - Stanford, CA

SUNY - Stony Brook - Stony Brook, NY

SUNY - Binghamton University - Binghamton, NY

Tufts University - Medford/Somerville, MA

University of California - Berkeley - Berkeley, CA

University of California - Davis - Davis, CA

University of California - Irvine - Irvine, CA

University of California - San Diego - San Diego, CA

University of Colorado- Boulder, CO

University of Florida- Gainesville, FL

University of Georgia - Athens, GA

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign - Urbana, IL

University of Maryland - College Park, MD

University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill, NC

University of Notre Dame - South Bend, IN

University of Pennsylvania - Philadelphia, PA

University of Texas - Austin, TX

University of Virginia - Charlottesville, VA

University of Wisconsin- Madison, WI

Vanderbilt University - Nashville, TN

Virginia Tech - Blacksburg, VA

Wake Forest University - Winston-Salem, NC

Williams College - Williamstown, MA

Yale University - New Haven, CT

Value Colleges Editor, Carrie Sealey-Morris, explains, "The quality and reputation of a school is a key to value." While a college with a cheap sticker price or low standards may be attractive to students who just want the paper, "a degree from a school with a good reputation ensures that employers will put your resume at the top of the stack, and the connections you can make at a well-known school may help you skip that resume stage altogether." For that reason, Sealey-Morris suggests considering schools that other students may see as out of their league: "Don't let the sticker price stop you from applying to the best values."

Value Colleges is an independent, online resource with one mission: to help prospective students find the best educational value in their chosen field. At Value Colleges future students can find rankings for the top investments in online and residential college degrees, advice on making the best decisions about finances when in college, and explanations of commonly-misunderstood aspects of college costs.

Carrie Sealey-Morris
Editor, Value Colleges
(512) 710-9901
Email

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SOURCE Value Colleges

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