KU News Release

LAWRENCE — The University of Kansas again ranks among the top 50 public universities in the nation for best educational value, according to Princeton Review.

“A large and lively public school, the University of Kansas excels in diverse academic areas, from its top business department to its solid programs in communications, education, engineering, journalism, music, nursing, premedical sciences, and the social sciences,” says the profile published in today’s USA Today.

The Princeton Review called KU one of the best buys in the Midwest — citing its “perennially low tuition” — and touted the Jayhawk Generations Scholarship, which offers reduced to tuition to qualified out-of-state students who are children or grandchildren of KU alumni.

KU is the only university in Kansas on the list.

The university also was praised for its undergraduate research awards as well as its generosity.

“KU can be very generous with qualified undergraduates,” says the Princeton Review. “Every year, KU offers financial aid packages to more than two-thirds of the student body, totaling more than $200,000,000. Notably, $57 million is gift aid, awarded in the form of scholarships and grants, rather than loans.”

The Princeton Review selected 100 institutions — 50 public and 50 private — as its “Best Value” choices for 2010 based on its surveys of administrators and students at more than 650 public and private colleges and universities. The selection criteria covered more than 30 factors in three areas — academics, costs of attendance and financial aid — using the most recently reported data from each institution for its 2008-09 academic year.