How to Find a Good, Affordable College

on October 1, 2009 at 7:00 AM

I just came across the Mother Jones Mini College Guide via the NYT. Mother Jones has put together a list of "Ten cool schools that will blow your mind, not your budget."

This is a great read for families who are pinching pennies and seriously sweating the future college tuition bill.

Most of the published "best of the best" college lists include schools with the higher tuition too, so this list from Mother Jones offers ten more reasonable options.

So while the ten schools on the Mother Jones list may not be making the famed college ranking guides we see every year, "they still have plenty to offer-and for a lot less dough." And that's good news.

A few stellar examples on the list:

Berea College (Kentucky)
Best value for: Low-impact men (and women) on campus
Tuition: $0
All 1,549 students get free tuition for four years. Some live in the Ecovillage, environmentally friendly housing that features a "permaculture food forest" and a contraption that makes sewage so clean you can swim in it.

New College of Florida (Sarasota)
Best value for: Brainy beach bums
Tuition: $26,300/$4,700 in state
The Sarah Lawrence of the South favors tutorials and evaluations over giant lectures and letter grades. In the past 14 years, it's cranked out more Fulbright Scholars per student than Harvard, Stanford, or Yale.

Hope College (Holland, Michigan)
Best value for: Artists with a spiritual side
Tuition: $25,500
This creative Christian college is known for its dance, theater, art, music, and visiting writers programs. Indie rocker Sufjan Stevens is an alum.

Other colleges on the list include:

Fisk University in Nashville, TN
University of Minnesota-Morris in Morris, MN
Kettering University in Flint, MI
College of New Jersey in Ewing, NJ
California State University-Monterey Bay in Monterey, CA
Warren Wilson College in Asheville, N.C.
University of Kansas in Lawrence, KS

This college list is a great idea. I hope to see more lists like it in this economic climate.

What schools are your teens looking at? How much are tuition costs and the availability of scholarships weighing in on their decisions?

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About the author Sheri Reed

is a writer and the Entertainment, News & Sports editor for The Stir. She loves a good film, watches lots of good TV and follows Ryan Gosling's every move because she has to -- for work.

Filed Under: college, education

Comments (2)

SteeleMommasita

on Oct 1, 2009 at 9:53 PM

My daughter is still real undecided on her path. She has changed her mind 3 x's in the last 2 weeks. So we have encouraged her to go to the local community college and take a variety of classes. From there she can get more of an idea of what it will take to do the actual bachelors program at a larger college in our state or elsewhere.

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milmiracle

on Oct 2, 2009 at 1:53 PM

This is good but it's also good to know that the best and cheapest way to go is to go to your local community college and work towards your local/state 4 year college and so on. It's the most economical route. Community colleges offer lots of knowledge and tips to work the system.