| |
University of Hawai'i |
(808) 956-8856 Telephone |
For Immediate Release: |
September 7, 2000 |
Contact: Jim Manke University and Community Relations, 956-6106
|
UH Manoa Among the Nation's Best Buy Universities, Kiplinger Ranking Focuses on Quality Over Cost |
The University of Hawai`i at Manoa is again listed among the nation's best buys in public colleges and universities, posting an overall ranking of 64th in the top 100 campuses surveyed.
In an article entitled "A Degree of Value," Kiplinger Magazine's October issue finds there is plenty to cheer about among the nation's top public institutions, pointing out that it's possible to obtain a "quality education without the Ivy League price tag."
UH Manoa made the list of top 100 institutions based on a variety of factors in the magazine's first cut, review. Editors narrowed a field of nearly 600 schools to 175, examining quality measures such as graduation rates, percentage of first-year students returning for their second year, student/faculty ratios, how much the college spends per student on instruction and how much it spends to maintain library resources.
Refining their selections, cost factors were then calculated, based on tuition, financial aid, amount of debt students accumulate before graduation, etc. Overall, the formula placed greater weight on quality (71%) than on cost (29%) because, as the editors said, "value is not synonymous with cheap."
The Kiplinger rankings show that among their top 100 best buy, colleges, UH Manoa
- Has the 23rd lowest in-state tuition ($3,156 per year)
- Is tied for 13th for percent of students who earn a bachelor's degree in 6 years (54%) (six years is a standard higher education time frame for measuring graduation rates)
- Ranks 19th for the lowest amount in student loans owed at graduation ($12,161) (that is, better than 81 institutions with higher debt owed)
- Ranks better than all but three colleges in faculty-to-student ratio (11 to 1)
Kiplinger editors list the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, the University of Virginia, and the College of William and Mary (Va.) as the top three for 2000.
The University of Hawai`i at Manoa ranks just behind the University of Massachusetts, Amherst (61), University of California, Santa Barbara (62) and Oklahoma State University (63.) The Manoa campus is listed ahead of such institutions as UC, Santa Cruz (76), University of Arizona (82), several campuses in the State University of New York system, and Oregon State (91) and the University of Oregon (92)
Rankings are posted on Kiplinger,s Web page at www.kiplinger.com, with the ranking tables at www.kiplinger.com/php/college/pubcollege.php3. The magazine is expected to be on newsstands next week.
