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14 Best Value Private Colleges: Princeton Review, 2023

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Financial Planning > College Planning > College Lists

14 Best Value Private Colleges: Princeton Review, 2023

By Michael S. Fischer

Slideshow May 02, 2023 at 11:45 AM Share & Print

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Related: 14 Best Value Public Colleges: Princeton Review, 2023

The Princeton Review recently released its annual list of the best private and public colleges that have earned the company’s highest return-on-investment rating. This year’s list comprises 209 private and public schools selected from the company’s survey of some 650 institutions during the 2021–22 academic year.

To tally the ROI ratings, researchers analyzed school-reported data on academics, cost/financial aid, career services, student debt and graduation rates.

They also factored in data from PayScale.com surveys of alumni of the schools about their starting and mid-career salaries, and their job satisfaction. Overall, researchers used more than 40 data points to tally the schools’ ROI rating scores.

The Princeton Review, a tutoring, test prep and college admissions services company, is not affiliated with Princeton University.

See the gallery for the 14 best value private colleges, according to the company.

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Michael S. Fischer

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14 Best Value Private Colleges: Princeton Review, 2023

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14. University of Pennsylvania
Acceptance rate: 6%
Applications: 56,332
Postgraduation mid-career pay: $153,100

Princeton Review says: UPenn comprises four undergraduate schools: the College of Arts and Sciences, Penn Engineering, the School of Nursing and The Wharton School, the Ivy League university’s highly regarded and very competitive undergrad business school. The campus provides ample guest speakers, cultural events, clubs and organizations for students, and weekend buses to and from New York City and Washington, D.C., tend to be packed.

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13. Vanderbilt University
Acceptance rate: 9%
Applications: 37,310
Postgraduation mid-career pay: $129,600

Princeton Review says: Vanderbilt’s 340-acre campus in the middle of Nashville, Tennessee, draws students from 95 countries. Some 60% of undergraduates participate in academic research, and with an 8:1 student-faculty ratio, students have easy access to faculty. The university meets 100% of demonstrated financial need for all admitted students, and financial aid awards do not include loans.

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12. Rice University
Acceptance rate: 9%
Applications: 31,443
Postgraduation mid-career pay: $141,600

Princeton Review says: Houston-based Rice is located next to the Texas Medical Center and the city’s Museum District. As a top-tier research institution, the university offers more than 50 majors across seven schools of study. Student life centers on 11 residential colleges.

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11. Claremont McKenna College
Acceptance rate: 10%
Applications: 5,709
Postgraduation mid-career pay: $151,200

Princeton Review says: Claremont McKenna College’s joint curriculars with the other six member schools of The Claremont Colleges in California allow its 1,200 students to tailor their education and access the resources of a large university — with more than 2,200 classes and activities from which to choose. Experiential learning is a keystone of the curriculum, and students have many opportunities to work with professors outside the classroom on research projects or in campus research centers. The vast majority of students also complete internships.

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10. Columbia University
Acceptance rate: 6%
Applications: 40,203
Postgraduation mid-career pay: $138,200

Princeton Review says: Columbia University, the Ivy League’s New York City “office,” has provided students prestige, rigorous academics, a strong alumni network and multiple opportunities since its founding in 1754. As intimate spaces carved out of the larger university, Columbia College and the Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science lavish vast resources on students, with benefits that extend from clubs to study abroad programs. New York’s countless cultural offerings offer a welcome respite from the school’s vaunted stress culture.

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9. Dartmouth College
Acceptance rate: 6%
Applications: 28,356
Postgraduation mid-career pay: $149,800

Princeton Review says: Tucked away in bucolic New Hampshire, Dartmouth strikes a nice balance between the intimacy of a small college and the opportunity and resources of a large university. To instill a sense of community, the Ivy League school assigns all incoming students to one of six houses, intended to make those communities a constant through a student’s four years at the college. The Greek system is the main source of social activity on campus.

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8. Williams College
Acceptance rate: 8%
Applications: 14,844
Postgraduation mid-career pay: $150,300

Princeton Review says: Williams College is a highly selective liberal arts institution whose relatively small size, an enrollment of 2,121, allows for individualized attention from faculty. Although its location in Williamstown in western Massachusetts seems remote, well-regarded art offerings are close by at the Clark Art Institute, the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art and the college’s own Museum of Art. More than a third of students are varsity athletes, and just about everyone else either is on a club sport, plays intramural or goes to the gym.

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7. Harvey Mudd College
Acceptance rate: 10%
Applications: 4,737
Postgraduation mid-career pay: $166,600

Princeton Review says: Harvey Mudd College’s mission is to educate engineers, scientists and mathematicians who are well versed in all of these areas and in the humanities, social sciences and the arts so they can assume leadership roles in their fields and understand their broader effect on society. As part of the seven-member Claremont Colleges consortium in California, the college affords students the opportunity to broaden their education beyond their STEM focus.

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6. Yale University
Acceptance rate: 5%
Applications: 50,060
Postgraduation mid-career pay: $151,600

Princeton Review says: Unlike some other prestigious research universities, Yale places huge emphasis on undergraduate education, requiring all professors to teach at least one undergraduate course each year. The Ivy League school’s residential college system further personalizes the students’ experience. Each residential college has a dean and a head, responsible for only 300 to 500 students, making administrative attention highly specialized and widely available. For getaways, students can travel north from their New Haven, Connecticut, base to Boston or south to New York City.

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5. Harvard College
Acceptance rate: 3%
Applications: 61,221
Postgraduation mid-career pay: $156,200

Princeton Review says: Harvard is legendarily hard to get into, even by Ivy League standards, but those who are admitted represent some of the most promising youth in the U.S. and from around the world. The school’s recent financial aid enhancements have only increased the number of applications. The hugely ambitious student body is diverse in all aspects of life, from ethnicities to religion to ideology and more.

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4. Stanford University
Acceptance rate: 4%
Applications: 56,378
Postgraduation mid-career pay: $156,500

Princeton Review says: Stanford is at the forefront of many disciplines, and few universities can match its prestige and caliber. Despite its academic rigor, however, the school has less of the competitive edge for which some peer institutions are known. Located in Palo Alto, California, the university is a short train or car ride from its culturally rich neighbor, San Francisco.

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3. California Institute of Technology
Acceptance rate: 3%
Applications: 16,626
Postgraduation mid-career pay: $153,100

Princeton Review says: Caltech provides one of the most rigorous undergraduate educations available in science, geared toward training leaders and pioneers of tomorrow in the field of science. The school’s dedication to this endeavor is renowned, and evident in the accessibility to research for all students, even freshmen. The institute’s house system, modeled after the Oxford college system, is the basis for undergraduate life, offering both a place to live and a social center for students.

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2. Princeton University
Acceptance rate: 6%
Applications: 38,019
Postgraduation mid-career pay: $161,500

Princeton Review says: This Ivy League institution, which dates to the mid-18th century, has long maintained a sterling reputation for quality academics. Princeton students tend to participate in a variety of activities, from varsity and intramural sports to more academically restricted ones, such as the autonomous vehicle design club, Engineers Without Borders and the university’s literary magazine. NJ Transit takes undergrads needing a break to nearby Philadelphia and New York City.

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1. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Acceptance rate: 4%
Applications: 33,767
Postgraduation mid-career pay: $167,200

Princeton Review says: MIT is the East Coast mecca of engineering, science and mathematics. Students mingle on campus with Nobel Prize laureates, and have research opportunities with them and other faculty who are leaders in their field. Undergrads even party sometimes with students from nearby Wellesley, Harvard and Boston University. And Boston itself offers a wealth of cultural activities.

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