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Kiplinger's Names Occidental a Best Value
Based on measures of academic quality and affordability, Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine has named Occidental College one of the country's 50 best values among liberal arts colleges for the fifth year in a row.
Occidental was ranked No. 49, one of just nine western colleges ranked in the top 50.
Some 78 percent of Occidental students receive some form of financial aid, which last year averaged $34,140 per student. Occidental enrolls more Pell Grant recipients (24 percent) than most other nationally ranked liberal arts colleges.
Kiplinger's used a variety factors when ranking "best value" schools, including admission rate, SAT or ACT high scores, ratio of students to faculty members, graduation rates, total annual cost, student cost after need-based aid, percentage of aid from grants, and average debt at graduation. The magazine based its analysis on data of more than 600 private institutions.
Occidental - No. 7 on the Newsweek/Daily Beast "Happiest Schools" list - also is ranked highly in the latest editions of several major college guides, includingU.S. News & World Report, Princeton Review's The Best 376 Colleges, the Fiske Guide to Colleges, The Insider's Guide to the Colleges, Forbes' "America's Best Colleges," Washington Monthly, and The Ultimate Guide to America's Best Colleges.
Oxy's ranking varies depending on the source being consulted: high school counselors polled by U.S. News rank Occidental No. 36 among the country's top liberal arts colleges, while U.S. News itself places Oxy in a three-way tie at No. 37 and Washington Monthly slots it in at No. 19, based on its contributions to social mobility, research, and service.
But regardless of the number assigned, Oxy is a ubiquitous presence. Occidental is again recognized by the Insider's Guide as one of a handful of colleges and universities with the strongest undergraduate focus. Fiske bestows four-star academic and quality-of-life ratings on Oxy, and Princeton Review gives Oxy's Financial Aid Office a score of 97 out of 100.