Kiplinger’s Ranks Clemson Among Best College Values of 2018

Clemson University once again has been named to Kiplinger’s Personal Finance list of 300 Best College Values of 2018.

Clemson is ranked the 31st best value for in-state students at a public university and 35th for out-of-state students.

“Students are looking for a quality education that’s affordable, that offers a complete student experience and that will help them achieve their goals. These describe Clemson University very well and are among traits that Kiplinger’s uses to choose the Best Value Colleges,” said David Kuskowski, Clemson’s director of undergraduate admissions. “We’re proud to be among them, and we are proud of our students.”

Kiplinger’s quality measures, which are weighted more heavily than cost, include the admission rate, the percentage of students who return for sophomore year, the student-faculty ratio and the four-year graduation rate. Cost criteria include sticker price, financial aid and average debt at graduation. Unlike other rankings, which include subjective criteria in their assessments, Kiplinger restricts its analysis to measurable standards of academic quality and affordability, according to the publication.

“Our rankings, which weigh affordability alongside academic quality, are a great resource for students and their parents when sorting through college choices,” said Mark Solheim, editor of Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine. “We start with a universe of nearly 1,200 schools and trim the list using measures of academic quality. We then rank the schools based on cost and financial aid data.”

The full rankings are now available online at kiplinger.com/links/colleges and will appear in print in the February 2018 issue of Kiplinger’s Personal Finance on newsstands Jan. 9th.

(Written by John Gouch, Clemson University Relations.)