Kiplinger's Finance Magazine released its list of the nation's Top 100 Best Values in Public Colleges in this month's issue, and included SUNY Fredonia on the list. Fredonia was one of seven New York State universities, all SUNY campuses, which made the list.
 
"It's high time to cast a critical eye across a public college landscape to see which colleges give students the best bang for the buck," Kiplinger's editors said. "Our exclusive survey of U.S. public colleges and universities shines a spotlight on schools that combine great academics with reasonable costs."
 
According to the Kiplinger's rankings, SUNY Fredonia is a bargain for both in-state and out-of-state students. Fredonia ranked 88th in the nation when considering in-state tuition only, and 64th when considering the best bargains for out-of-state students. "Some schools actually turn out to be better relative values for out-of-state students than for locals," Kiplinger's confirmed. The editors listed Fredonia's cost to in-state students as $11,782, but only $8,961 after aid was factored in. The before-aid cost for an out-of-state student to attend Fredonia was estimated at $17,732, but only $8,771 after aid.
 
Kiplinger's determined its rankings based on data provided by more than 500 public, four-year colleges and universities to Peterson's, a division of the Thomson Corp., which publishes a well-known college guide. Kiplinger's supplemented Peterson's data with its own reporting, cutting the list to 200 schools whose freshman class had the highest percentage of students who scored above 600 on the verbal and math SATs, or 24 on the ACT.
 
To find the academically strongest schools, Kiplinger's looked for colleges with the most selective admission rates, the healthiest student to faculty ratios, and the best statistics on faculty with the highest degrees in their field. The editors also considered were how much each school spends on instruction for each student, how much each school spends on its library facilities, and how many students graduate in four or six years.
 
Ultimately, the magazine created a ranked list of the top 100 best values in public higher education by combining quality with cost, factoring in tuition and other expenses, grants, aid, and average debt accumulated by graduates.
 
The other New York State schools that made the list were the four University Centers in SUNY (Buffalo, Binghamton, Albany, and Stony Brook), and the SUNY Colleges at Geneseo and New Paltz. The list included two Pennsylvania colleges: the University of Pittsburgh, and the Pennsylvania State University at University Park.
 
SUNY Fredonia has been cited in the past by other publications for being a "best buy," including previous Kiplinger's surveys and U.S. News and World Report. It made U.S. News and World Report's "top ten" list for the Northeast last year, and this fall was selected as one of the best colleges in the Northeast among both privates and publics by The Princeton Review. According to Student Affairs Vice President David Herman, SUNY Fredonia students ranked it among the best nationally in a recent American College and University Housing Survey of students living on campuses.