Lipscomb named a 2017 Best Value College by Kiplinger's Personal Finance
Lacey Klotz |
For its third consecutive year, Lipscomb University has been named to the Kiplinger Personal Finance list of 100 best values in private universities for 2017. The ranking cites four-year schools that combine exceptional academic quality and affordability.
“It is a priority for us to help our students keep their student debt load to a minimum,” said L. Randolph Lowry, Lipscomb University president. “At Lipscomb we work diligently to offer a quality education that is affordable and that gives students the tools they need to be successful. It is gratifying to be recognized for that effort by Kiplinger for three consecutive years, at a time when student debt burden is a critical issue among universities across the country.”
Among other universities included on the list are Harvard, Princeton, Duke, Yale, Vanderbilt, Brown, Stanford and Dartmouth.
This is the latest of several recognitions Lipscomb has received for its quality and excellence this year. In 2016, the Carnegie Foundation classified Lipscomb as a doctoral university, placing it among 7 percent of schools nationwide. As a result, for the first time in school history, Lipscomb was ranked as a national university in the annual U.S. News & World Report’s “2017 America’s Guide to Colleges.”
Lipscomb was also ranked No. 2 in the nation on the “Best Christian Colleges and Universities in the South 2017” ranking list by Christian Universities Online, the College of Education was ranked the No. 15 best value in the nation by the National Council on Teacher Quality and the Doctor of Education program was ranked 29th in the nation in Nonprofit Colleges Online’s Best Online Doctorates in Education: Students Before Profits Award 2015-16 list.
The university’s summer programs, Bible college, veteran services program, biology program, human resources degree and marketing program have also recently been ranked nationally by higher education organizations in various disciplines.
Kiplinger assesses value by measurable standards of academic quality and affordability. Quality measures include the admission rate, the percentage of students who return for sophomore year, the student-faculty ratio and four-year graduation rate. Cost criteria include sticker price, financial aid and average debt at graduation. Many schools have appeared on the list multiple times, a testament to the consistent value these colleges provide.
“There’s no way around it: college is expensive, and it’s going to stay that way for a long time. So, with our rankings—which weigh affordability alongside academic quality—our goal is to help students and their parents understand what’s really worth the price,” said Janet Bodnar, editor of Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine. “While some may have ranked higher than others, all 300 schools on the list are of extraordinary value, being chosen out of a universe of 1,200.”
The complete rankings are now available online at Kiplinger.com/links/colleges and will appear in print in the February 2017 issue of Kiplinger’s Personal Finance, on newsstands Jan. 3, 2017.