The Princeton Review ranked the University seventh in its list of top-valued public undergraduate colleges in a report released Tuesday.
Robert Franek, vice president of publishing at the Princeton Review, said this is the third year the Princeton Review has published its book, "America's Best Value Colleges."
This year the book features two top-10 lists: the best value public colleges and the best value private colleges, Franek said.
Franek explained that the Princeton Review uses a specific algorithm to create a "point system" to rank the colleges.
The company looks at a variety of factors to determine which colleges make the list, including academic factors, cost and financial aid, Franek said.
First, the Princeton Review considers the competitiveness of the schools based on admission criteria, he said. Then it considers the reactions of students and what they think of the professors and overall experience at their college or university.
According to Franek, the Princeton Review has an online survey that asks students to rank their overall experiences at their universities.
This year, over 160,000 students participated in the survey, he said.
Finally, the Princeton Review considers the financial aid offered at the schools.
Franek said this is the most crucial criterion of the algorithm because the Princeton Review not only considers how much financial aid is offered, but also gift aid, any sort of grant money the student will not have to pay back and the average debt load the student has after college.
"The germination of the idea came from high school students and their parents," Franek said.
The Princeton Review found that when considering colleges, the main concern of high school students was cost and whether or not they could afford their top-choice school, he said.
Yvonne Hubbard, director of student financial services, said the University struggles with making high school students aware of its affordability.
Hubbard said when University administrators talk about wanting diversity, they are not only referring to race or gender but also different socioeconomic backgrounds.
Hubbard was very pleased with the ranking.
"When you say, 'affordable,' it doesn't mean cheap, cut rate or discount --it means a great school that has devised a program that makes it possible for all students to come here," Hubbard said.
Other public schools on the list included University of California at Berkeley, New College of Florida and University of North Carolina at Asheville, Franek said.
He said the main mission of the book is to make high school students and their parents aware of affordable colleges with great educational backgrounds that they may not have considered.
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