Top 50 Public Universities in USA – Best Bang for Your Buck
Here are top 50 public universities in USA for 2013 based on with highest value for the money you pay for college. Its’ called Best Bang for your Buck Rankings from Washington Monthly.
Ranking Methodology
- At least 20 percent of their students must be receiving Pell Grants, which go to students of modest means (annual household incomes below $50,000).
- Graduation rate of at least 50 percent
- Each school’s actual graduation rate must meet or exceed the rate that would be statistically predicted for that school given the number of lower-income students admitted.
- Make sure graduates are earning enough in the workforce to at least cover their student loans, schools must have a student loan default rate of 10 percent or less.
Using the above 4 factors are put together by Washington Monthly ranked over 1500 colleges and universities in America.
Here is a list of top 50 public universities from the overall list of 1500+ colleges and universities.
Top 50 Public Universities in USA
This partial list of public universities includes Top 50 schools from overall list of 1572 colleges and universities.
| 1 | University of Florida (FL)* | 29% | 84% | 3% | $4,132 |
| 2 | University of Georgia (GA)* | 22% | 82% | 3% | $6,335 |
| 3 | Univ. of North Carolina-Chapel Hill (NC)* | 20% | 89% | 1% | $6,949 |
| 4 | NC State University-Raleigh (NC)* | 25% | 72% | 3% | $7,345 |
| 5 | Texas A&M Univ.-College Station (TX)* | 23% | 81% | 5% | $7,383 |
| 6 | San Diego State University (CA)* | 29% | 66% | 4% | $8,066 |
| 7 | Arizona State University (AZ)* | 35% | 57% | 6% | $8,088 |
| 8 | Indiana University-Bloomington (IN)* | 21% | 72% | 3% | $8,129 |
| 9 | University of Washington-Seattle (WA)* | 24% | 80% | 3% | $8,334 |
| 10 | Florida State University (FL)* | 28% | 74% | 5% | $8,447 |
| 11 | East Carolina University (NC)* | 34% | 59% | 3% | $8,463 |
| 12 | University of Central Florida (FL)* | 30% | 63% | 8% | $8,825 |
| 13 | Utah State University (UT)* | 30% | 52% | 4% | $8,850 |
| 14 | University of Vermont (VT)* | 22% | 72% | 3% | $8,927 |
| 15 | University of California-Riverside (CA)* | 57% | 67% | 5% | $9,224 |
| 16 | University of California-Berkeley (CA)* | 27% | 90% | 3% | $9,394 |
| 17 | Oklahoma State University-Main (OK)* | 28% | 62% | 6% | $9,838 |
| 18 | University of Minnesota-Twin Cities (MN)* | 23% | 70% | 3% | $9,945 |
| 19 | University of California-Irvine (CA)* | 38% | 85% | 3% | $9,981 |
| 20 | University of Arizona (AZ)* | 32% | 61% | 6% | $10,046 |
| 21 | University of California-Los Angeles (CA)* | 32% | 90% | 3% | $10,055 |
| 22 | University of California-San Diego (CA)* | 47% | 85% | 3% | $10,092 |
| 23 | Michigan State University (MI)* | 26% | 77% | 4% | $10,092 |
| 24 | University of Utah (UT)* | 20% | 55% | 3% | $10,186 |
| 25 | University of California-Davis (CA)* | 39% | 82% | 3% | $10,229 |
| 26 | Purdue University-Main (IN)* | 21% | 68% | 3% | $10,355 |
| 27 | Univ. of California-Santa Barbara (CA)* | 34% | 80% | 3% | $10,844 |
| 28 | Iowa State University (IA)* | 23% | 68% | 4% | $10,979 |
| 29 | Michigan Technological University (MI)* | 28% | 65% | 3% | $11,017 |
| 30 | Rutgers University-Newark (NJ)* | 45% | 68% | NA | $11,052 |
| 31 | University of California-Santa Cruz (CA)* | 42% | 73% | 4% | $11,119 |
| 32 | University of Texas-Austin (TX)* | 28% | 81% | 5% | $11,134 |
| 33 | SUNY at Albany (NY)* | 37% | 64% | 6% | $11,272 |
| 34 | University of Nebraska-Lincoln (NE)* | 24% | 67% | 4% | $11,379 |
| 35 | SUNY at Binghamton (NY)* | 26% | 77% | 3% | $11,439 |
| 36 | SUNY at Buffalo (NY)* | 28% | 71% | 4% | $11,726 |
| 37 | Univ. of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign (IL)* | 21% | 82% | 3% | $12,061 |
| 38 | University of Nevada-Reno (NV)* | 29% | 51% | 7% | $12,344 |
| 39 | University of Rhode Island (RI)* | 26% | 63% | 6% | $12,364 |
| 40 | South Dakota State University (SD)* | 36% | 60% | 5% | $12,370 |
| 41 | University of Oregon (OR)* | 23% | 66% | 5% | $12,457 |
| 42 | Washington State University (WA)* | 26% | 67% | 6% | $12,490 |
| 43 | University of Oklahoma Norman (OK)* | 24% | 67% | 7% | $12,849 |
| 44 | MO Univ. of Science & Technology (MO)* | 28% | 67% | 5% | $12,993 |
| 45 | University of Kansas (KS)* | 22% | 61% | 4% | $13,142 |
| 46 | Western Michigan University (MI)* | 35% | 56% | 5% | $13,565 |
| 47 | Illinois State University (IL)* | 24% | 71% | 3% | $13,672 |
| 48 | University of La Verne (CA) | 51% | 58% | 5% | $14,208 |
| 49 | Oregon State University (OR)* | 30% | 61% | 4% | $14,497 |
| 50 | Bowling Green State Univ.-Main (OH)* | 40% | 58% | 7% | $14,947 |
My take on Rankings : International students don’t qualify for Pell Grants. Just because college you are attending is ranked in the above list of in the total list of 1500 means nothing. You are going to get a degree and skills you get from the college education will help with your career. Ranking – a mere number attached to a college means nothing to you.
Here is link to different set of US University Rankings – List of U.S. University Rankings
Hi ,
My Profile :
Recently scored 318 in GRE ( 168 Q 150 V 2.5 AWA)
TOEFL – Pending
3+ working experience in IT field ( Tech Mahindra )
– 10th – 81% , 12th – 84% , BTECH (EE) – 69%
– Paper Presentation in College , Awarded in Company
Questions ?
1) Should I regive GRE for low score in Verbal ?
2) Can i pursue my MS in CS , i have btech in EE but work exp. in IT ?
3) Please suggest some univ. for MS ?
One’s i shortlisted are they way over my reach because of my Btech percentage?
– Yale Univ.
– Purdue Univ.
– SUNY Buffalo
– Georgia Tech
4) Is it advisable to do MS from other than A Grade colleges ?
This question arises as after MS from other college won’t unemployement hit theses students .
Please suggest .
Thanks ,
Adarsh Agarwal
Hi,
Answers to your questions.
1) Your overall GRE score is good, I am not sure how much whether the verbal score would affect you.
2)Yes definitely, you can pursue MS in CS with UG in EE. I have done my BE in Mech and am pursuing MS in EE right now.Make sure you make it clear in your SOP on why you are switching your field.
3)I do not know much about CS, but I feel Purdue and Gatech would be slightly ambitious (again depends on your SOP) . For CS, I have not heard of people applyign to Yale. I would advise you to do more research, ask other people and check out univ websites for more univs.
4)I am not sure what you mean by A grade, but even if the univ is low ranked, ( I mean 50-100) , it is worthwhile if the profs and the program is good. If you develop good knowledge in your core area, you will get a job
What does each percentages represent?
I want to know, whether, the Best Bang for your Buck Universities, mean that they are the most cost effective? But I dont find any lesser tution cost in these universities to be cost effective. they have equally costlier tution rates.
Hi,
GRE: 316:161(Q;81percentil),155(67 percentil); AWA : 3
percentage :72 in BE ;84 in 12th;(But 85 + in math through out)
Work Exp : will b 3 yrs by 2014 fall; 1 yr in products company ;2 yr as java developer, Wipro: (design and Mant. project )
won pap presentatn and debugging etc in some national level symp ,part of math club in clg ; best idea awad in compan ;
>want study of algorithms basd on computational mathematics for MS<
1. Is my quants score very low 🙁 🙁 ??;should i apply for reval ??does it ever make a difference ? i think my scor in quant shud b ard 165 !?
2. Do i hv a good pofile to apply fo th top 25 univ (US News etc)?
My list :
TAMU
SUNY Buffalo
UNC-Chappel-Hill
Arizona State Univ
Indiana..Bloomington..
Wat else shud I Apply for, if i NEED the SCHOLARSHIPS !!??
correction : reval 4 AWA…not quants ..but i dont know y i got low in quants..as i recheckd my answers…
Learn admission strategies to get scholarship inside Hello America – http://goo.gl/3X6Bu
can u sujjest me the us univs for my profyl gre 292, acad 79% EE, ielts 6, with a affordable cost even with part time availabl areas
Raghu,could not understand the third criteria… And the stats given against each uni represents the criteria right?? Then why UC-Riverside so down below,it has good stats right… or am I messing up??
ok got the meaning of the criteria… BUT still why UC-RA so down??