Mercer University appears in the top half of Kiplinger’s 300 Best College Values for 2018, coming in at No. 129.
 
This ranking places the University among the top 40 private universities in the country.
 
Introduced in 1998, Kiplinger’s rankings now combine public schools, private universities and private liberal arts colleges into a single, comprehensive list. The company also provides a ranking of the 100 best values in each category.
 
Kiplinger’s analysis is based on objective measurements of academic quality and affordability, not subjective criteria.

The full rankings are available online at kiplinger.com/links/colleges and will appear in the February 2018 issue of Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine on newsstands Jan. 9.

“Our rankings, which weigh affordability alongside academic quality, are a great resource for students and their parents when sorting through college choices,” said Mark Solheim, editor of Kiplinger’s Personal Finance. “We start with a universe of nearly 1,200 schools and trim the list using measures of academic quality. We then rank the schools based on cost and financial aid data. All 300 schools on our list are worth a look.”
 
The editors at Kiplinger’s Personal Finance evaluate data from public and private four-year schools, provided by Peterson’s. The list is then narrowed to the top schools based on measures of academic quality, including SAT or ACT scores, admission and retention rates, student-faculty ratios, and four-year graduation rates. The editors then rank the schools using cost and financial aid measures. Academic quality carries more weight than costs.