The Princeton Review's 2012 Best Value Colleges

The Best Value Colleges for 2012 were selected based upon institutional data and student opinion surveys collected from Fall 2010 through Fall 2011. Broadly speaking, the factors we weighed covered undergraduate academics, costs and financial aid.

Additionally, we considered the percentage of graduating seniors who borrowed from any loan program and the average dollar amount of debt those students had at graduation. Learn more about our best value colleges methodology.

Top 10 Public Colleges Top 10 Private Colleges 1. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Williams College 2. University of Virginia Swarthmore College 3. New College of Florida Princeton University 4. State University of New York at Binghamton Harvard College 5. University of Wisconsin Rice University 6. College of William and Mary Pomona College 7. University of Florida Washington University 8. University of Georgia Yale University 9. University of Washington California Institute of Technology 10. University of Texas at Austin Hamilton College See more information for the Top 10 Best Value Public Colleges See ALL of the Best Value Public Colleges (alphabetically) See more information for the Top 10 Best Value Private Colleges See ALL of the Best Value Private Colleges (alphabetically)