10 Biggest Public University Bargains for 2019
In general, public universities tend to offer a wider range of courses, degree programs, and activities than private colleges, and they tend to be less expensive to attend as well. However, even a college education at a public university can still be very expensive. We've put together this 2019 edition list of the 10 lowest-cost public universities (and you can also see the private ones , too) in the United States based on the latest data from the U.S. Department of Education .
Note that the cost figures quoted are based on in-state tuition and fees. Costs may be considerably higher for out-of-state students.
What Are The 10 Most Affordable Universities?
10 Biggest Public University Bargains for 2019
South Texas College has several campuses, with its main campus in McAllen in the southern tip of Texas. The college has more than 34,000 students in total and offers bachelor's degrees in applied technology, technology management, and information technologies, as well as more than 100 associate degree and certificate programs.
Despite the size of its student body, South Texas College offers a reasonable student-to-faculty ratio of 26 to 1 and typical class sizes of 15 to 18 students, along with night and weekend classes for flexibility. The college tops our list of public university bargains with a total cost of attendance of only $4,092 per year for tuition, room and board, books, and other fees after taking the average financial aid package into consideration.
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Affordable Colleges Online
As you can tell from our list, going to one of the cheapest colleges in the U.S. doesn't mean compromising. Whether you want to be near a coast or near home, cheap colleges are everywhere. Because so many of these best value universities have modernized to include distance education, many of them could easily qualify for a list of the cheapest online colleges, too.
In general, if you want to attend one of the cheapest online colleges, it pays to play the numbers game. Consider attending online classes from a college that is in your state. This eliminates many fees and generally lowers the cost of tuition. Next, choose which colleges interest you. From there, you can sort them in order of most expensive to cheapest online college. Or, if you want to make it easier on yourself, check out some of our lists of most affordable colleges or best value online degree plans.
To determine the best public university bargains, we looked at the most important factors prospective students, mainly common predictors of future success and a school's commitment to online programs. This boils down to admissions rate, student loan default rate, retention rate, graduation rate, and the percent of students enrolled in online classes. All data points are taken from information provided by colleges and universities to the National Center for Education Statistics.
Each factor is weighted evenly in order to give an objective view and determine the top 10 public university bargains. To calculate our rankings, we looked at a school's ranking when organized by a single factor, and then averaged each category's ranking to find an overall score: Admissions Rate (20%) + Default Rate (20%) + Retention Rate (20%) + Graduation Rate (20%) + Percent of Students Enrolled in Online Classes (20%) = Final score.