Mississippi State is the 12th best value in the nation among public universities for students attending college outside their home state, according to Consumer's Digest magazine.
The magazine uses a ranking formula that considers tuition and room and board costs, along with quality measures such as graduation rates, student-faculty ratio, and test scores of entering freshmen. The resulting calculation indicates which institutions offer "the most academic value per dollar."
Only non-resident tuition fees for public universities were considered because "attending a public school in the state where you reside will almost always offer the best value for your education dollar," magazine editors said. The MSU ranking was based on 2002-03 data.
Six other Southeastern Conference universities also are on the list of "Top 50 Best Values for Public Colleges and Universities." They include the universities of Mississippi, Kentucky, Alabama, Arkansas, and Tennessee, and Louisiana State University.
Consumer Digest consistently is listed among America's 100 most popular magazines. The collegiate rankings in its June 2004 edition also explain the ranking process. An online version is available at http://www.consumersdigest.com/images/CollegeValues.pdf .
Last fall, Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine--another Top 100 magazine--rated MSU the 29th best value in the country for out-of-state students using a similar process.
