Best Bets College List
Carol Stack and Ruth Vedvik, aurthors of "The Financial Aid Handbook: Getting the Education You Want for a Price You Can Afford," recommend the following list of colleges and universities based on these following criteria:
1. Average student loan burdens could not exceed $8,000 per year.
2. Selectivity must be more than 40 percent.
3. Average grants must exceed average loans.
4. We [the authors of the book] must know something about the colleges, either through personal experience or reports from colleagues we trust.
Agnes Scott College, Decatur ,GA
Augsburg College, Minneapolis, MN
Baker University, Baldwin City, KS
Ball State University, Muncie, IN
Beloit College, Beloit, WI
Berry College, Mt. Berry, GA
Boise State University, Boise, ID
Bradley University, Peoria, IL
California State University, San Marcos, CA
Centenary College, Hackettstown, NJ
Centre College, Danville, KY
Clark University, Worcester, MA
Colby-Sawyer, London, NH
The College of Idaho, Caldwell, ID
College of the Atlantic, Bar Harbor, ME
College of Wooster, Wooster, OH
Doane College, Crete, NE
Drew University, Madison, NJ
Eckerd College, St. Petersburg, FL
Elon University, Elon, NC
The Evergreen State College, Olympia, WA
Fort Lewis College, Durango, CO
Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA
Gustavus Adolphus College, St. Peter, MN
Hartwick College, Oneonta, NY
Hendrix College, Conway, AK
Hollins University, Roanoke, VA
Illinois College, Jacksonville, IL
Lawrence University, Appleton, WI
Lewis & Clark College, Portland, OR
Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, CA
Loyola University of Maryland, Baltimore, MD
Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, TN
Mills College, Oakland, CA
Montana State University, Bozeman, MT
Muhlenberg College, Allentown, PA
North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND
Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK
Pacific Lutheran University, Tacoma, WA
Pacific University, Forest Grove, OR
Presbyterian College, Clinton, SC
Randolph-Macon College, Ashland, VA
St. Mary’s College, Notre Dame, IN
Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, TX
Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, CA
Sewanee: University of the South, Sewanee, TN
Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX
Spring Hill College, Mobile, AL
St. Andrews Presbyterian College, Laurinburg, NC
St. Olaf College, Northfield, MN
University of Denver, Denver, CO
University of Minnesota-Morris, Morris, MN
University of the Ozarks, Clarksville, AR
University of Puget Sound, Tacoma, WA
University of Tulsa, Tulsa, OK
Warren Wilson College, Asheville, NC
West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV
William Jewell College, Liberty, MO
Willamette University, Salem, OR
Xavier University of Louisiana, New Orleans, LA
Stack, Carol and Vedvik, Ruth. The Financial Aid Handbook; Getting the Education You Want for the Price You Can Afford. Plains, NJ: Career Press, 2011.