Texas A&M ranks eighth among the 10 best values in higher education in the nation, according to The Princeton Review’s Top Ten Best Value Colleges list of 2007.
The Princeton Review’s Best Value list is based on a balance of school quality versus cost of attendance. The New College of Florida in Sarasota ranked first, and The University of California-Berkley and Oklahoma University were nine and 10 respectively. A&M was the only public school in Texas to rank in the top 10.
The list is a new addition to a published guide containing academic and financial statistics on hundreds of colleges and universities across the United States, according to The Princeton Review’s Web site.
“To the best of my knowledge, this is the first time that Texas A&M has reached a level of national attention for its combination of quality and affordability,” said Dean Bresciani, vice president of Student Affairs.
The lack of previous attention is not entirely a coincidence, he said, as University leadership has lately taken purposeful steps to advance A&M’s level of comparative value.
“I would say A&M charges a fair price for the degree you receive,” said Chris Bransford, a freshman chemistry major.
Bransford, however, said money is not the most important thing when considering a college.
“Money wasn’t my biggest concern when choosing a school,” he said. “My father attended A&M so it was more important as a tradition. I know that where I am from, UTEP (University of Texas at El Paso) is cheaper and I probably would have chosen UTEP if money had been a concern.”
Bresciani said steps taken to minimize University expenditures have included looking for efficiencies within various business operations on campus to assess in what areas expenses can be cut, reducing staff without compromising associated programs, establishing mechanical efficiencies to improve services while reducing cost and outsourcing off-campus vendors who can render services of the same quality at a lower cost.
“University leadership has been very successful at reducing expenses and minimizing cost increases so as to maintain Texas A&M’s historic affordability and accessibility to all residents of the state,” he said.
Bresciani said that although an immediate connection between A&M’s flat tuition rate and the recent economical rankings are not apparent, he anticipates that the flat rate will carry significance with future rankings.
“Flat rate tuition is having a positive effect on the overall cost of education by encouraging students to take full academic loads and graduate sooner,” he said. “In doing so, this will substantially decrease their net cost of getting a degree.”
Bresciani said the Kiplinger’s Report and the U.S. News and World Report also gave A&M similar rankings in the past several months.
“(Kiplinger & World Report) are probably the two most respected and recognized publications to rank Texas A&M in a similar manner to the Princeton Review,” he said.