By Morgan Walker
The University of Richmond now outranks schools such as Boston College, Johns Hopkins and Cornell on Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine's list for the best value in a private university.
Richmond sits in the 22nd spot on the April 2007 list, up 10 spots from the last time the ranking was released in January 2004, Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine's associate editor Jane Clark said.
Kiplinger's editors chose the University of Richmond from a pool of more than 1,000 private liberal arts colleges and universities based on academic quality and affordability, according to the magazine's website. When assessing where a school will fall on the list, the editors weigh the two factors as two-thirds for academic quality and one-third for affordability, Clark said.
The assessment of the academic quality involves looking at the university's admissions rate, average SAT and ACT scores, the student-to-faculty ratio and the four and five-year graduation rates, Clark said.
The affordability of the school factors in the total costs of the school, the cost after need-based aid, the need met by the university, aid received from grants, non-needbased aid given to students, and the cost after non-need-based aid, Clark said.
Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine is a well-respected ranking and these things help market the school, Richmond's President William Cooper said. "Kiplinger's compares us to major research universities," he said. "To be on the same page as some of those distinguished universities and to outrank them is an honor.
"We are becoming increasingly legitimate as a national university. We are in the hunt and we have to continue the momentum."
This publication will help the university get a certain amount of attention and if you look at all the rankings out there, Richmond is always in the top tier, Richmond's Director of Media ands Public Relations, Brian Eckert, said. "Independent endorsements without our participation always gives us something to market," he said. "And it all contributes."
The University of Richmond responded quickly to the release of Kiplinger's April issue and added this honor into its marketing strategy for prospective students. "We used it on Saturday at an open house," Cooper said.
Although receiving a spot on the list of the top 50 best values in private universities is an honor, no ranking is perfect, Cooper said. But Kiplinger's is pure and legitimate ranking compared to something like Fiske's Guide to Colleges or Princeton Review, he said.
When students choose a university, they are buying a relationship, Cooper said.
Just because a school is in the top 10 of every ranking does not mean it's the school for you, he said.
Parents always tend to focus on the school's ranking compared to other schools, Betty Schneider, Langley High School's career center counselor said. Langley High School is in McLean, Va. Schools create competition by focusing on the rankings, she said.
"Rankings don't help the applicant, they help the school," Schneider said. "My job is to focus on the student's perspective and these rankings just create unbearable competition for the students."
Ranking is a big factor for the parents, Andrea Milam of Lexington, Ky., said.
Milam has two daughters: Lauren, who is a first-year Westhampton College student on a partial dance scholarship through the University Dancers and Ally, who is a junior in high school interested in attending Richmond in the fall of 2008.
"What makes a parent willing to pay $45,000 a year is something like a ranking," Milam said. "It is what pushes it over the edge when compared to other schools. This ranking has been an affirmation that the school is worth the money. It illustrates the school has goals."
Full and partial scholarships through sports and other related activities are not the only ones given out to students at the University of Richmond. One out of every 15 incoming freshman receives the Richmond Scholars Scholarship, which offers full tuition based on merit. Other scholarships come from the Presidential Scholarships, National Merit scholarships and the Bonner Scholars Program, according to the university's website.
What makes the University of Richmond stand out is that it gives more non-need based aid than most of the other school's on the list, Clark said. In fact, Richmond's website says that the university gives financial aid through grants, loans, scholarships and other sources to 65 percent of its students. The university is also one of only 21 of the top 50 universities to guarantee 100 percent of need-based financial aid, according to Kiplinger.com.
First-year Westhampton student, Kelly Behrend of Mount Holly, N.J., is here on a full scholarship through the Bonner Scholars Program. "Bonner Scholars is a merit-based scholarship for community service and need-based financial aid," Behrend said. "Without Richmond's extensive financial aid opportunities, I would not have been able to attend this university.
"Richmond was able to acknowledge my financial need and my merit as an applicant and was able to meet it 100 percent. I am so grateful the university was recognized for the amazing efforts it is making in helping students achieve their academic goals."
In the event of a tie between two or more schools, Kiplinger's assesses the average debt at graduation and the overall quality of the school based on other rankings, Clark said.
Because the school's overall quality is involved with most national rankings, the university is making efforts to improve the quality of life on campus, Jessica Ruzic said.
She is president of the Westhampton Class of 2010. "The Westhampton College Government Association is working hard on creating a livable environment for the students," Ruzic said. "Administration works on making sure this school is affordable and academically strong, whereas we can help by improving the quality of life through projects such as the new Weinstein Center for Recreation and Wellness."
Current students at the University of Richmond put emphasis on Richmond's ranking when applying to graduate programs at other schools, Westhampton College Junior, Alison Andolena, said. "As a junior who is going to be applying to law schools next fall, a ranking that is higher than other well-known schools is definitely a good thing I am going emphasize in my applications," Andolena said. "Hopefully, it is something that will end up helping me."
Richmond is definitely in the running to outrank other schools in the future, Clark said. The university's only weak spots when compared to other schools are the admission rate and the four-year graduation rate, she said.
The University of Richmond admits 47 percent of its applicants each year, giving it the second highest admissions rate in the top 25 schools on the list, according to
Kiplingers.com. Schools such as Harvard University, Columbia University, and
Dartmouth College rank higher on the list and have admissions rates lower that 15 percent, Clark said.
Also, the four-year graduation rate is not as competitive as others, Clark said. If the university can become more competitive in these two fields, the ranking is likely to rise in Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine's list of the top 50 Best Values in Private
Universities, she said.