Saw this linked on Facebook and thought I'd share:

http://www.greatvaluecolleges.net/affordable/south-us/

Some great schools on the list, I thought number one especially stood out

While I always like any positive pub, as an alum I wish we got more attention for overall quality than for simply being cheap to attend. Note that the #1 ranking is simply based on being the least expensive school on the list, and it ranks us 17th for quality.

While I do agree, being number 17 on that list in quality isn't anything to be ashamed of. Even just on quality, we're still ahead of Florida State, Miss State, UCF, UNCW, ECU, and VCU, and just behind Texas A&M, Auburn, and Clemson.

Honestly, our relatively low number of programs, and mediocre graduation rate are the things that always hold us back on those lists.

EastHallApp wrote:While I always like any positive pub, as an alum I wish we got more attention for overall quality than for simply being cheap to attend. Note that the #1 ranking is simply based on being the least expensive school on the list, and it ranks us 17th for quality.

To me value and cheap isn't really the same thing, I think value implies quality at a better price.

I think the quality issue could addressed if our "big brother" UNC would stay out of our dam business, they have interfered in the past when Peacock tried to set up doctorial programs, and master programs. It has been obvious he has been really frustrated trying to improve the quality of the academics, having UNC throw up roadbocks has really hurt our University. Somehow we need people with real power from the Western part of the state at the state level to give us a voice.

Maddog1956 wrote:

EastHallApp wrote:While I always like any positive pub, as an alum I wish we got more attention for overall quality than for simply being cheap to attend. Note that the #1 ranking is simply based on being the least expensive school on the list, and it ranks us 17th for quality.

To me value and cheap isn't really the same thing, I think value implies quality at a better price.

The page explicitly states that the #1 ranking is based on price: "They are listed in descending order according to their net price"

Not saying App isn't a good value too, but that's not why we "top" this list.

EastHallApp wrote:

Maddog1956 wrote:

EastHallApp wrote:While I always like any positive pub, as an alum I wish we got more attention for overall quality than for simply being cheap to attend. Note that the #1 ranking is simply based on being the least expensive school on the list, and it ranks us 17th for quality.

To me value and cheap isn't really the same thing, I think value implies quality at a better price.

The page explicitly states that the #1 ranking is based on price: "They are listed in descending order according to their net price"

Not saying App isn't a good value too, but that's not why we "top" this list.

But, the list of schools was determined by

6-year graduation rate, freshmen retention rate, student-to-faculty ratio, percentage of classes entrusted to graduate assistants, average entrance ACT score, number of campus organizations, number of academic programs, and Forbes ranking

It's not like they were just providing a list of the schools with the cheapest tuition. App would not make that list.

I'm certainly not going to argue that App isn't a quality school. I think the annual US News rankings bear that out.