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Berkeley is nation's best-value college, according to Forbes

By Public Affairs

Forbes Best Value Colleges

1 – UC Berkeley
2 – UCLA
3 – Princeton
4 – U. of Florida
5 – Harvard
6 – MIT
7 – Stanford
8 – UC Irvine
9 – UC Davis
10 – Brigham Young

UC Berkeley is the top best-value college or university in the nation for the second year in a row, according to new rankings from Forbes .

Berkeley is one of four UC campuses in the top 10 on Forbes’ Best Value Colleges list for 2017. UCLA is second, Irvine eighth and Davis ninth. In addition, UC San Diego is 11th and UC Santa Barbara 22nd.

“We’ve tapped into something very interesting here,” Forbes wrote in announcing the new rankings. “Private Northeast institutions have lost their monopoly on the higher education marketplace. More than half of the top Best Value Colleges are clustered in the West and five of the 10 are public schools (four from the enviable UC system). And all are highly active research hives with outstanding programs in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).”

Altogether, Forbes ranked 300 schools, answering just one question: What schools are worth the investment? Colleges and universities were measured in six general categories, which were weighted differently:  Quality (25 percent), alumni earnings (20 percent),  median student debt (20 percent), on-time graduation (15 percent), drop-out risk (10 percent) and Pell Grant recipients (10 percent. The total was divided by gross tuition and fees to reach a value.

Other campuses in the top 10 in addition to the UCs were: Princeton (3), University of Florida (4), Harvard (5), MIT (6), Stanford (7), and Brigham Young (10).