No other college in the country is as reasonably priced as Swarthmore College, according to the new Best College Values 2017 rankings by Kiplinger’s Personal Finance.
And Swarthmore is even cheaper than last year — the magazine noted its average net price came in $1,800 less than a year ago, per a Kiplinger report by Kaitlin Pitsker.
“Swarthmore College moved to the head of our combined list this year in part because of generous financial aid awards and a competitive 12 percent admission rate,” the report stated. “It also leads our list of liberal arts colleges for the sixth time. Most of its idyllic 425-acre campus, 11 miles outside of Philadelphia, is set on an arboretum.”
Though officially priced at $64,840 a year, more than half of students receive need-based aid, which provides an average 68 percent discount, leaving the bill at just $20,584. Meanwhile, the 2017 average for out-of-state public colleges is $35,370, and the private college average adds up to $45,370.
Beyond offering a quality education at an affordable price, Swarthmore alleviates the burden of student debt; recent grads leave school with an average $18,262 in debt, which is 40 percent below the private college national average.
Read more about Swarthmore and the latest rankings from Kiplinger here, and check out previous DELCO Today coverage of the college here.
