KIPLINGER'S RANKS JMU AMONG NATION'S 'BEST VALUES'

From: Media Relations

October 16, 2003

HARRISONBURG — James Madison University is ranked among the "best values" of U.S. public colleges and universities based on quality and cost by the publishers of Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine.

JMU was rated 47th in value nationally for out-of-state students and 51st for in-state students in Kiplinger's "100 Best Values in Public Colleges" on its Web site, Kiplinger.com. In the formula, quality accounted for two-thirds and cost for one-third of the scoring.

The university was included in the top-100 listing based on such quality measures as admission rates, student-faculty ratios, four- and six-year graduation rates, instruction costs per student and spending on library resources. Entrance-exam scores of the 2002-03 freshman class were considered.

After the top 100 were selected on quality alone, then they were ranked based on a combination of quality and cost measurements, including total cost for in-state students, average percentage of financial needs met by aid, average costs for students with and without need of financial aid and the average amount of debt students accumulate before graduation.

Five other Virginia schools, including three in the top 10, were ranked: University of Virginia, College of William and Mary, Virginia Tech, Mary Washington College and George Mason University.

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