Princeton Review names Evergreen one of America's 'best value' colleges

OLYMPIA, Wash. — For the fourth year running, the Princeton Review has named The Evergreen State College one of the nation's "best value" four-year colleges. The New York-based education services company features Evergreen in the 2007 edition of its book, America's Best Value Colleges (Random House/Princeton Review, $18.95.)

"Being selected as one of the nation's best value colleges again this year makes clear our commitment to providing one of the best liberal arts educations in America, along with an equal commitment to remain as accessible as possible to students," said Thomas L. "Les" Purce, Evergreen's president.

Evergreen joins the University of Washington, Washington State University and the University of Idaho as the only colleges in the Pacific Northwest to be selected. The guide profiles 150 public and private colleges in 40 states with excellent academics, generous financial aid packages and relatively low costs. Editors based their rankings on data obtained from administrators at more than 646 colleges and from surveys of students attending them.

"We considered over 30 factors to rate the colleges in four categories: academics, tuition GPA (the sticker price minus average amount students receive in scholarships and grants), the level of financial aid support and student borrowing," explains Robert Franek, vice president for publishing at The Princeton Review. According to Franek, the company recommends the 150 schools in the book as America's best college education deals.