The University of Virginia ranked second in the Princeton Review’s "Best Value Colleges: 2012 Edition" released yesterday.
The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill took the top spot among public colleges, a spot that UVA held for the past three years.
The editors at the Princeton Review surveyed administrators and students at 650 colleges and universities and made their ranking selections based on 30 factors in three main areas: academics, cost of attendance and financial aid.
The University’s AccessUVA financial aid program was cited as one of the main contributors to its high ranking.
“UVA has one of the largest per-capita endowments of any public school in the country and exerts a tremendous effort to ensure that its undergraduates have access to an affordable education regardless of economic circumstances,” according to the book.
“Students come to UVA because of the quality of our academic programs, but also because they can get a great education here without taking on extraordinary debt,” UVA President Teresa Sullivan told UVA Today.
The College of William & Mary also made the list as the number 6 among public universities.
Click here for the full rankings and more information.