Columbia University On Best Value Schools List Despite $72K Cost

MORNINGSIDE HEIGHTS, NY — Columbia University was named one of the best values in American higher education by the business and personal finance publication Kiplinger. The ivy-league institution came in at the No. 24 spot on a combined list of public, private and liberal arts colleges and universities.

Columbia University is one of the most expensive schools to make Kiplinger's list. The publication estimated that the yearly annual cost to attend the school is $72,627. Only the University of Chicago (No. 44 on the rankings) and Harvey Mudd College (59) are more expensive.

Although Columbia has a high cost, its quality academics scored the school high marks with Kiplinger's ranking-makers. The publication weighs school quality at 55 percent an cost at 45 percent, allowing pricey but esteemed schools to earn high spots on the list. Columbia's acceptance rate of 6 percent was topped only by Stanford and Harvard and its 86 percent four-year graduation rate was also among the best.

The Morningside Heights school was boosted in the rankings by its students' financial success. Kiplinger created a metric called the "salary yardstick" which analyzes the median incomes of students of students 10 years after starting at a school. The $78,200 "salary yardstick" for a Columbia student was the 10th best on the list.

Check out Kiplinger's full rankings here.

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