Most Affordable Out-of-State Colleges

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This is the second of the numerous financial aid-based rankings that I’m going to publish in the upcoming days. While the first emphasized schools giving lots of money to lots of students, this one focuses on pure affordability. The big question facing many students and families is this: can I afford to go to that college? No matter who you are or what your financial background, if you get in to these schools, they will ensure that you can afford to attend.

In all of these rankings, I’ll highlight the “Super Six” – institutions that qualify for my rankings and either charge no tuition or offer full tuition scholarships to all admitted students.

Berea College, Cooper Union, Franklin Olin School of Engineering, U.S. Military Academy, U.S. Naval Academy, U.S. Coast Guard Academy

1. Swarthmore College
2. Rice University
3. Grinnell College
4. Harvard University
5. Vanderbilt University
6. Princeton University
7. Yale University
8. Williams College
9. Pomona College
10. Vassar College
11. Barnard College
12. California Institute of Technology
13. Carleton College
14. Scripps College
15. Haverford College
16. Colorado College
17. Wellesley College
18. Stanford University
19. Wesleyan University
20. Bowdoin College
21. Hamilton College
22. University of Richmond
23. Dartmouth College
24. Pitzer College
25. Middlebury College
26. Duke University
27. Colgate University
28. Cornell University
29. Washington and Lee University
30. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
31. Trinity College
32. Skidmore College
33. University of Pennsylvania
34. Brown University
35. Claremont McKenna College
36. Bryn Mawr College
37. Reed College
38. University of Chicago
39. University of Virginia, Charlottesville
40. Mount Holyoke College
41. Colby College
42. Bucknell University
43. Smith College
44. Harvey Mudd College
45. Macalester College
46. St. Olaf College
47. Northwestern University
48. Wake Forest University
49. Davidson College
50. Occidental College
51. Union College
52. University of Rochester
53. University of Southern California
54. Emory University
55. Johns Hopkins University
56. Tufts University
57. Franklin and Marshall College
58. University of Notre Dame
59. College of the Holy Cross
60. Connecticut College

This ranking is composed of three parts:

1) Average cost of attendance (20%) – using data from the Common Data Set, the average cost of attendance is calculated by adding tuition and room & board and subtracting the average financial aid award from it.

2) Average merit-based award (20%) – using data from the Common Data Set, the average merit-based award is the percentage of students who receive a merit-based award multiplied by the average amount of the award.

3) Average indebtedness at graduation (60%) – this number is pulled directly from the Common Data Set.

A disclaimer: Oberlin, Washington University in St. Louis, and Columbia each did not disclose their average indebtedness at graduation, and thus adversely affected their ranking (which was higher than 60).