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Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine once again named SUNY Fredonia one of the nation’s top 100 best values in public higher education, based on a combination of academics and affordability, among a pool of more than 500 public four-year colleges and universities. Schools on the list were ranked according to academic quality, cost and financial aid. Kiplinger’s noted, “Our definition of value begins with academics: No school is a bargain if it skimps on quality.”
Fredonia’s academic quality was determined by the SAT and ACT scores of its incoming freshmen, along with its admission and retention rates, student-faculty ratio, and four- and six-year graduation rates.
Vice President for Academic Affairs Virginia Horvath noted, “SUNY Fredonia is especially attractive to many students and their families because of its tradition of excellence, the breadth and quality of its academic programs, and the success of its graduates. Faculty and staff put student success at the center of what they do, creating many research, performance, and leadership opportunities for students.”
Kiplinger’s noted that state college and university enrollment is increasing, as more students are seeing the value of a public institution. SUNY Fredonia reflected that trend last year, when it stopped accepting freshman applications in May — its earliest date ever — after receiving a record 6,600 freshmen applications.
Undergraduate tuition at SUNY Fredonia is currently $4,970 for New York State residents and $12,870 for out-of-state residents.
“Students at Fredonia receive an outstanding academic and cultural experience, and are taught by qualified and dedicated faculty,” Dr. Horvath added. “Classes are small, and students benefit from knowing their instructors and one another well. The residential nature of the campus also means that students are fully immersed in campus life and have many co-curricular learning experiences.”
Kiplinger’s Senior Editor Jane Bennett Clark also noted that the U.S. economy has put stress on public higher education, which is coping with declining support from state governments. “The economy may be recovering, but the effects of the recession continue to buffet the nation’s public colleges and universities," she said. “State governments...have cut funding for higher education. Meanwhile, enrollment at state institutions has spiked as more students go public and more people overall seek college degrees.”
The College Board lists the average yearly price of attending a public college in 2009 was $7,020 for in-state and $18,548 for out-of-state residents, while the average cost of attending a private college or university was $26,273.
SUNY Fredonia has been a perennial selection in Kiplinger’s and other highly regarded rankings. In August, U.S. News & World Report ranked Fredonia 14th among top public, master’s granting universities in the North—and 22nd among all private and public universities in the North for freshmen retention rates—in its “America’s Best Colleges” edition. In November U.S. News ranked Fredonia 15th in the entire nation for having small class sizes (19 or fewer students) among high-quality, low-priced colleges.
