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Library at the University of Florida. Image by Porsche997SBS CC0.
College and university education is the U.S. is prohibitively expensive to many, with stark divisions on class, race and gender when it comes to equitable access. Within the marketized system for education, some institutions are on the lower end of the cost scale.
New analysis shows how the University of Florida tops the rankings as the university with the lowest price ‘high quality’ degree. On this measure, three colleges in Florida feature in top five, with Florida State in second, and University of South Florida in fourth. New Mexico State University ranks in third, and Purdue University places fifth.
The review comes from the university ranking site Research.com. The company examined some 1,700 higher education institutions across the U.S., looking at the average cost of their tuition and fees, room and board charges, and books and supplies.
The study was based on the universities that rank in the top 10 percent of Research.com’s Best Colleges ranking.
The University of Florida in Gainesville topped the ranking as the most affordable college thanks to an average total cost for one year of $20,045, making it the most affordable college in the country. Tuition is an average of $8,285, while average room and board charges are $10,950, and the cost of books and supplies, at $810, is the lowest of all entries in the top five.
The university, which is made up of 16 colleges, including the College of Medicine, the College of Journalism and Communications, and the Warrington College of Business, offers more than 100 undergraduate majors and 200 graduate degrees.
Tallahassee’s Florida State University offers the second most affordable college education. The average cost of its books and supplies is $1,000, while tuition comes in at around $7,493, with average room and board charges totalling $11,565. That all adds up to a total cost of $20,058 for the university which has a 37% acceptance rate.
New Mexico State University, whose main campus is in Las Cruces, is third with an average total cost for one year of $20,060, which is made up of an average of $7,568 for tuition and fees, plus average room and board charges of $11,252, and books and supplies costing an average of $1,240. The college offers more than 80 different bachelor’s degrees, and more than 50 master’s degrees, and ranks as the 33rd best public college in the country.
In fourth place is University of South Florida in Tampa. Its total average cost for the year is just $18 more than New Mexico State University, at $20,078. Tuition is an average of $6,410, room and board charges come to $12,568, while books and supplies are $1,100.
Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana provides students with the fifth most affordable education in the US. This is based on average tuition and fees of $9,992, room and board charges of $10,030, and books and supplies for $1,160, which adds up to $21,182.
Bubbling below are:
- 6th: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
- 7th: The University of Utah in Salt Lake City.
- 8th: North Carolina State University at Raleigh.
Given students graduate with thousands of dollars of debt from their university education, such analyses matter.
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