
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, August 31, 1995                   TAG: 9508310079
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NEW YORK                                LENGTH: Long

COLLEGE RANKING LIKE RERUN

New College of the University of South Florida, a tiny liberal arts school tucked away in Sarasota, again beat the likes of Harvard and Yale to rank as the best college value in the nation.

For the third year running, New College topped Money magazine's list of the top 100 college buys.

High academic standards and its attractive bayside campus aside, New College won above all because it provides an affordable education for its 560-odd students, Money says in its special issue, ``Money Guide: Your Best College Buys Now,'' released Wednesday.

Tuition at New College increased just $7 this year for out-of-state freshmen to $7,950, compared with an average tuition increase of 6.5 percent nationwide.

A member of the University of South Florida system, New College charges Floridians just $2,066 in annual tuition.

Rice University, the Texas school that boasts the 10th-largest endowment in the nation, came in at No. 2. Like New College, Rice held onto its ranking for a third straight year.

Northeast Missouri State University ranked third in the survey, followed by New Jersey's Trenton State College and the California Institute of Technology at No. 5.

Rounding out the top 10 are: University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill; State University of New York at Binghamton; Georgia's Spelman College, University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign; and State University of New York at Albany as No. 10.

``Seven of Money's 10 best college values are public schools, up from six a year ago,'' the magazine says.

``This is great news for students who live in the same states as these schools,'' Money says, ``because their families will pay bargain in-state rates that are even lower than the fees for out-of-state students on which our rankings are based.''

Besides the top 10, some big names appear lower down on Money's list. Harvard University ranks 43rd, Yale University is 46th and Columbia University is 97th.

No. 100 is Pomona College in California.

Money's list of best buys was garnered by looking at 16 measures of educational quality - such as entrance exam results, faculty deployment and four-year graduation rates - and comparing them with tuition and fees.

The magazine says its ranking excludes colleges with strong religious requirements.

This year's ranking was Money's first since an April 5 article in The Wall Street Journal raised questions about New College and other schools inflating college entrance exam scores to rank well in surveys such as Money's. Some schools also were said to have manipulated other data.

New College did in the past inflate Scholastic Aptitude Test scores by eliminating the lowest-scoring 6 percent of students, the Journal said. The school was quoted as saying the practice had stopped.

James Feeney, director of special project development at New College, told The Associated Press the practice was meant to aid in the admission of talented students who might not be good test-takers. ``It was discontinued some time ago,'' he said.

Money says that, regardless, such a practice would not have affected its ranking since the magazine looks at the percentage of freshmen with high test scores, those who score above a certain level.

``We've been approaching it this way for as long as we've done the ranking,'' said Ira Hellman, a spokesman for Money.|

Here are the Virginia schools listed among the 100 top college values in the nation:

18. James Madison University

26. University of Virginia

28. Mary Washington College

33. Washington and Lee University

42. Emory & Henry College

50. College of William and Mary

78. Virginia Tech

1. New College of the University of South Florida

2. Rice University (Texas)

3. Northeast Missouri State University

4. Trenton State College (N.J.)

5. California Institute of Technology

6. University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill

7. State University of New York at Binghamton

8. Spelman College (Ga.)

9. University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign

10. State University of New York at Albany

11. Rutgers University-New Brunswick (N.J.)

12. St. Mary's College of Maryland

13. University of Texas-Austin

14. Hanover College (Ind.)

15. Georgia Institute of Technology

16. State University of New York-College at Geneseo

17. University of Florida

19. Miami University (Ohio)

20. Hendrix College (Ark.)

21. University of Washington

22. Texas A&M University-College Station

23. Auburn University (Ala.)

24. University of Georgia

25. Wake Forest University (N.C.)

27. Florida State University

29. Clemson University (S.C.)

30. Fisk University (Tenn.)

31. Hillsdale College (Mich.)

32. Ottawa University (Kan.)

34. University of South Carolina-Columbia

35. University of Iowa

36. Howard University (Washington, D.C.)

37. Siena College (N.Y.)

38. University of Wisconsin-Madison

39. Trinity University (Texas)

40. State University of New York-College at Fredonia

41. St. Bonaventure University (N.Y.)

43. Harvard University (Mass.)

44. State University of New York at Stony Brook

45. University of California-Berkeley

46. Yale University (Conn.)

47. State University of New York at Buffalo

48. Drury College (Mo.)

49. University of the South (Tenn.)

51. Creighton University (Neb.)

52. University of Delaware

53. Le Moyne College (N.Y.)

54. New Jersey Institute of Technology

55. Wabash College (Ind.)

56. Pennsylvania State University

57. Furman University (S.C.)

58. University of California-Los Angeles

59. Birmingham-Southern College (Ala.)

60. Southwestern University (Texas)

61. Berry College (Ga.)

62. University of Minnesota-Twin Cities

63. University of Cincinnati (Ohio)

64. State University of New York-College at Plattsburgh

65. St. John's University (N.Y.)

66. William Jewell College (Mo.)

67. Assumption College (Mass.)

68. Illinois College

69. University of California-Davis

70. University of Missouri-Columbia

71. Transylvania University (Ky.)

72. Rutgers University-Camden (N.J.)

73. Chestnut Hill College (Pa.)

74. North Carolina State University

75. Johns Hopkins University (Md.)

76. University of California-Irvine

77. Grinnell College (Iowa)

79. State University of New York-College at Oneonta

80. Central College (Iowa)

81. Wofford College (S.C.)

82. Humboldt State University (Calif.)

83. St. Vincent College (Pa.)

84. Dartmouth College (N.H.)

85. Claremont McKenna College (Calif.)

86. Austin College (Texas)

87. Nebraska Wesleyan University

88. Nazareth College of Rochester (New York)

89. University of California-Riverside

90. Harvey Mudd College (Calif.)

91. Thomas More College (Ky.)

92. Loyola University (La.)

93. University of Pittsburgh (Pa.)

94. Northwestern University (Ill.)

95. Carroll College (Mont.)

96. University of Maryland-College Park

97. Columbia University (New York)

98. Stonehill College (Mass.)

99. Millsaps College (Miss.)

100. Pomona College (Calif.)

|Associated Press|

NEW YORK - New College of the University of South Florida, a tiny liberal arts school tucked away in Sarasota, again beat the likes of Harvard and Yale to rank as the best college value in the nation.