US business forecast publisher, Kiplinger.com last week published a table of the best value private universities for 2009–2010.

Their findings showed Pomona to be the best value liberal arts college and California institute of Technology the best value university.  The study assesses the academic quality of the institutions and then compares this to the costs of attending and their generosity with financial aid. Therefore institutions with high tuition fees may still be ranked as good value if they offer a lot of financial aid. Read the results here.

You can also search particular institutions or particular states’ value for money here.

This comes as a refreshing revelation after The Chronicle of Higher Education published a report of the most expensive US colleges in their annual survey of college tuition. The Kiplinger report shows that even though institutions may be counted amongst the most expensive for tuition and living costs, when the financial aid available is taken into account they can still be counted amongst the best value for money.

The Kiplinger website states: “Our rankings measure academic quality and affordability, with quality accounting for two-thirds of the total. We started with data on more than 600 private institutions provided by Peterson’s, then added our own reporting. Our list ranks the top 50 universities and liberal-arts colleges in separate tables. To determine each category, we used the Carnegie classification system, which organizes institutions based on the highest level and number of degrees offered.”