ECU named ‘best value’ by U.S. News

East Carolina University is among the top 10 southern regional universities offering students the best value for their educational dollars, according to the U.S. News & World Report.

The magazine’s Oct. 11 issue, released this week, lists what it calls “America’s Best College Values” among national and regional universities and among national and regional liberal arts schools. U.S. News used two different methods to achieve its rankings. One method, based on a school’s so-called “sticker price,” takes into account the school’s tuition plus room and board. The second method uses tuition plus room and board and other expenses less the average financial aid award to incoming students to compute the school’s “discounted price.”

The top 10 southern regional universities judged as “sticker price best value” were ECU, Appalachian State University, Berea College (KY), David Lipscombe University (TN), East Tennessee State University, Florida International University, University of Alabama at Huntsville, University of North Carolina at Asheville, University of South Alabama, and Winthrop University (SC). The magazine said the “Best Buys” rankings are based on the quality rankings that appeared in last week’s U.S. News & World Report. To qualify, the schools had to rank near the top of their category in academic quality in this year’s U.S. News “America’s Best Colleges” survey.

U.S. News ranked several other North Carolina schools as “best values” in other categories. Duke University and UNC-Chapel Hill were among the top 25 “discounted price best value” national universities. N.C. State University and UNC-Chapel Hill were among top 25 “sticker price best value” national universities. Davidson College was in the top 20 listings for “discounted price” and “sticker price best value” national liberal arts schools. UNC-Asheville also made the list of top 10 “discounted price best value” southern regional universities along with Wake Forest University.