The University ranked number 14 on the Princeton Review’s 2016 list of top-50 schools with the highest return on the cost of tuition.
The list can be found in the Princeton Review’s book “Colleges That Pay You Back: The 200 Schools That Give You the Best Bang for Your Tuition Buck — 2016 Edition.” The book includes the University among the 200 schools, as well as featuring six other schools from the top 25 of the list.
Both the list and book consider factors such as alumni information from PayScale, cost of attendance, financial aid and selectivity.
“We collected institutional data from close to 2,000 schools for the 2014-15 academic year and have opinion surveys from 136,000 students,” Princeton Review Editorial Director Kristen O’Toole said in an email statement. “We combined our data with [PayScale’s] alumni salary information and selected these 200 schools from a cohort of 650.”
The 200 schools within the book are not ranked, but ordered alphabetically and highlight strong academics, affordable costs and high job placement.
“We analyzed more than 40 factors, including alumni career information from [PayScale], cost of attendance, financial aid (based on both demonstrated need and merit) selectivity, academics and student opinion surveys,” O’Toole said.
The University has consistently held a position on the Princeton Review’s list since the first publication in 2003. O’Toole said four other universities currently on the list, including University of California-Berkeley and Rice University, accompanied the University 13 years ago.
Everette Fortner, associate vice president of Career and Personal Development, said many factors weigh into the University’s success in the ranking.
“U.Va. is consistently seen as one of the top values in the country because of its moderate tuition as a state institution,” Fortner said in an email statement.
Nearly all of the Class of 2015 graduates have either found job placements or have moved on to pursue a higher degree in their education. Fortner credits this success to valuable connections for students to the job market, offered both through alumni and the University itself.
“U.Va. has an incredibly strong alumni network which helps accelerate both the initial job placement but also the fast job progression,” Fortner said. “Finally, I think the largest contributing factor is that our students are highly capable of success, with high aspirations to make a difference in the world.”
Fortner said the Career Center works hard to assist students in finding opportunities and placements when they approach graduation.
“In the past couple of years, U.Va., through President [Teresa] Sullivan’s Cornerstone Plan, has invested significantly in total advising and particularly career advising,” Fortner said. “This year the Career Center, in conjunction with the career offices in each school, launched six career communities to assist students seeking customized, specialized career assistance.”
These communities include business, engineering, science, technology, creative arts, media and design, government and law, education and public service.
The Career Center intends to develop seminars and courses to help students build their professional skills, as well as find more grants for summer internships, Fortner said.
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