Athens, Ga. – The University of Georgia moved up three places to fourth in this year’s ranking of best values among 100 public colleges and universities by Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine.
UGA moved up from its seventh place spot in last year’s Kiplinger’s list, which ranks public schools on “a combination of outstanding academic quality and an affordable price tag.” The new ranking is in the magazine’s December issue, which hits newsstands Nov. 11.
More than 500 colleges and universities were surveyed for the ranking and the top 100 were chosen based on academic quality, cost and financial aid.
The magazine puts total annual costs to attend UGA at $14,458 for students from Georgia and $30,770 for out-of-state students. After financial aid is taken into account, average costs are $7,918 for in-state students and $24,230 for out-of-state students. UGA’s in-state cost is fourth lowest among the top 10 schools.
The magazine says students graduate from UGA with an average debt of $14,420, second-lowest among the top 10 schools.
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill ranked number one on Kiplinger’s list and the universities of Florida and Virginia ranked second and third, respectively, followed by UGA, which ranked fourth. Other colleges and universities ranking in the top ten are the College of William and Mary (5th), State University of New York (SUNY) Geneseo (6th), SUNY Binghamton (7th), New College of Florida (8th), University of Maryland, College Park (9th) and University of California, San Diego (10th).
Two other Georgia schools are in the top 100-Georgia Institute of Technology, ranked 16th, and Georgia Southern University, ranked 92nd.
Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine has a circulation of about 800,000 and has been publishing since 1947.