BYU-Hawaii named best value among private schools
Brigham Young University-Hawaii is the No. 1 "top value" among private colleges and universities, according to Consumers Digest Magazine.
The University of Hawaii at Manoa -- the only other Hawaii school in the ranking -- is ranked among the top 50 "top value" public colleges and universities.
"It's not a surprise," said Duane Roberts, communications director for BYU-Hawaii. "We think we're a pretty good place to go to school."
This is the second time the magazine has compiled a list of top-value colleges and universities. In 2004, BYU-Hawaii was also rated the best value for private schools. UH-Manoa was ranked 20th among public institutions.
This year, perhaps in part to the tuition increase that went into effect last year, UH-Manoa fell to 38th.
Consumers Digest used information available on most college Web sites to determine its rankings. They were weighted based on the academic excellence of first-time freshmen (test scores, high school rank, grade point average) and educational quality (four- and six-year graduation rates, student-to-faculty ratio, percentage of faculty holding a Ph.D.). Those scores were factored with the cost of attending each school to determine which schools offered the most academic value per dollar. The rankings were based on information from the last academic year, and for public universities only nonresident tuition was considered.
About 3,800 schools were evaluated.
"In both categories, public and private, we saw an unsurprising hike in costs to attend," said Consumers Digest Editor Rich Dzierwa.