Students seeking a quality education at a reasonable price can look to Arizona State University as a "best buy," according to Fiske Guide to Colleges 2018.
The guide, which annually ranks schools with the best combination of academic excellence and value for the cost of tuition, included ASU on its list of only 20 public universities designated this year.
ASU shared the distinction with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the University of Maryland, the University of Florida and the University of Washington, among others. It was the only Arizona school on the list.
The Fiske guide describes ASU as a university “where ‘massive innovation’ is the norm and where an interdisciplinary culture is seen as the best means of developing ‘world-changing ideas.’ ASU’s stated goal is to serve any Arizona student qualified for college-level work and, in the process, it has become a national model of how to deal with the emerging demographics of U.S. higher education.”
Fiske reports ASU’s tuition for in-state students at around $11,000. In fact, very few resident students pay that amount: with gift aid and scholarships, the average Arizonan pays $1,800 in net tuition per school year.
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ASU’s commitment to access and affordability has created an influx of students from a diverse socioeconomic range, expanding ASU’s reach beyond many similar schools.
And it’s not just Arizona students benefiting from the high-value proposition presented by ASU.
Students from all states have access to the world-class education of the No. 1 most innovative university in the country, according to U.S. News and World Report, for a reasonable cost.
“The scholarship I got from ASU made my out-of-state tuition about equivalent to what it would have cost in California to go to school,” said Lauren Gooch, a senior studying marketing. “Also, being able to graduate in four years was important to me — ASU guaranteed that, while the California schools I was considering could not.”
The Fiske guide is not the only ranking in which ASU excels. In addition to the No. 1 in innovation ranking — ahead of No. 2 Stanford and No. 3 MIT — the university ranks in the top 10 for graduate employability ahead of MIT, Columbia and UCLA, according to Times Higher Education.
ASU is the No. 1 public university in the U.S. as chosen by international students according to the Institute of International Education.
And it’s home to a top 25 law school, a top 25 graduate business school and a top 20 fine arts school in the country, according to U.S. News and World Report.
And like the Fiske “best buy,” it has been designated a “Best College Value” by Kiplinger’s.
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