MONEY magazine identifies SRU as a ‘best value’

August 3, 2016

SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. - MONEY Magazine has released what it has determined to be the definitive list of colleges and universities that provide the best value in the country and Slippery Rock University made the cut.

According to MONEY, a "great value" institution is one that provides "a great education, at an affordable price and that helps students launch promising careers."

"It's always an honor to be included among those institutions identified as providing a great value to its students," SRU President Cheryl Norton said. "We take our promise to provide a high quality, affordable and accessible education - a ROCK Solid education - very seriously and work diligently to deliver on that promise."

To determine which of the country's roughly 2,000 four-year colleges and universities deliver the most value, MONEY editors first eliminated institutions that:

• Had less than 500 students;
• Did not have a graduation rate that was at or above the median for its institutional category (public or private);
• Did not have sufficient data to be analyzed;
• Were identified as having financial difficulty by the U.S. Department of Education or bond ratings agencies.

If a school's graduation rate was below the median but was in the top 25 percent of MONEY's "comparative value" analysis - graduation rate after accounting for the average test scores and percentage of low income students among its enrollees - it was included. Military academies were excluded.

The remaining 705 colleges were then ranked on 24 factors in three categories: quality of education, affordability and outcomes (alumni success) from information gathered by PayScale.com.

MONEY also measured how well students at each school did versus what's expected for students with similar economic and academic backgrounds and each institution's mix of majors.

In terms of affordability, the editors considered: merit aid, parent and student borrowing, the length of time to graduate, tuition increases and other measures.

A complete list of MONEY's best value universities can be found at: http://new.time.com/money/best-colleges/rankings/best-colleges/

MEDIA CONTACT: Robb King | 724.738.2199 | robert.king@sru.edu