According to Forbes.com’s Center for College Affordability and Productivity, the goal of this year’s ranking was to research where students can get the most quality for each tuition dollar spent, especially for those shopping on a budget. For many students today, the price of a school is as important a factor in deciding where to go as its quality.

The “Best Buy Ranking” lists the top colleges and universities in the nation from a pool of 600 institutions. Claflin ranked number 31, making it the second-highest ranked school in South Carolina, behind The Citadel (#16) and the top-ranked Historically Black College or University (HBCU).

“It is more crucial now than ever to provide students with an affordable education,” said Claflin University President Dr. Henry N. Tisdale. “At Claflin, we are very cognizant of the hardships students face in tough economic times, and we do as much as we can to ensure that the economic burden doesn’t overshadow educational opportunities. That’s why our Board of Trustees voted not to increase student tuition this year. We want to give our students every opportunity to be successful, and we thank Forbes.com for recognizing our efforts.”

This is the second national ranking Claflin has received for affordability. Consumers Digest cited Claflin third for best value among top private colleges and universities nationally in 2007.

To produce the current rankings, Forbes.com divided each school’s overall quality score by its average net (after allowance for scholarship grants) tuition rate from the 2003-2004 to 2006-2007 academic years. The quality score is calculated by summing each school’s score with respect to Who’s Who in America citations, salary data from PayScale.com, course evaluations from RateMyProfessor.com, the receipt of student and faculty nationally competitive awards, and the graduation rate variables used in the Best College rankings. All schools with an actual four-year graduation rate lower that 25 percent are excluded from the “Best Buy Ranking.”

“We believe that to be considered a ‘high value’ investment there must be a reasonable expectation of completing one’s degree within the normal time period,” according to Forbes.com.

The Center for College Affordability and Productivity compiled its college rankings using seven components:

1.      Listing of Alumni in the 2008 edition of Who’s Who in America (12.5%)

2.      Salaries of Alumni from PayScale.com (12.5%)

3.      Student Evaluations from RateMyProfessors.com (25%)

4.      Four-Year Graduation Rates (16.66%)

5.      Students Receiving Nationally Competitive Awards (8.33%)

6.      Faculty Receiving Awards for Scholarship and Creative Pursuits (5%)

7.      Four-year Debt Load for Typical Student Borrowers (20%)

The 600 institutions of higher education in this ranking are schools which award undergraduate degrees or certificates requiring “four or more years” of study, according to the U.S. Department of Education. Only those schools categorized by The Carnegie Foundation as Doctorate-granting Universities, Master’s Colleges and Universities, or Baccalaureate Colleges are included in this sample of schools.

This is the second ranking Claflin University has received from Forbes.com. In 2008, Forbes.com ranked Claflin in the top four percent among all colleges and universities and the top HBCU in the nation in its inaugural ranking of America’s Best Colleges.