Lyndon State College has been named one of America’s 100 Most Affordable Small Colleges by Best Value Schools. Lyndon landed at 55 on the list; it is ranked as the most afforadable of the three Vermont schools listed. Best Value Schools is an online guide for aspiring college students who are seeking the best value in their college education. The Best Small College’s list focuses on traditional four-year colleges — not community colleges, graduate schools, or specialty schools. For this list, “small college” was defined as a school with fewer than 4,000 students.
Of the 2,700 institutions of higher education nationwide, there are 700 “small” traditional four-year colleges. These 700 schools were ranked based on their “net price,” a figure Best Value interprets as more accurate than reporting tuition rates alone. These net prices come from College Navigator, a component of the National Center for Education Statistics and are generated: “by subtracting the average amount of federal, state/local government, or institutional grant or scholarship aid from the total cost of attendance. Total cost of attendance is the sum of published tuition and required fees, books and supplies, and the weighted average for room and board and other expenses.” This net price gives students a more realistic assessment of what they can expect to pay in total costs per year at any given school.
The Best Value guide pointed out that, “People apply to LSC for a number of reasons, whether it’s the cozy and accepting campus community, the innovative First-Year Experience for incoming freshmen, or the academic resource center that keeps all students on track.” The full report can be found at: bestvalueschools.com/most-affordable-small-colleges-america-2015/