UW-Madison made a huge jump this year on Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine's list of the 100 best-value public colleges, ranking 19th and 23rd for out-of-state students.
In 2007, Kiplinger's ranked UW-Madison the 25th best value for in-state students and number 41 for students who reside out of state. The rankings reflected schools that were both academically strong and affordable.
Director of UW-Madison Financial Aid Susan Fischer said she is surprised by the university's huge jump on the list. According to Fischer, aside from a small additional number of grants averaging $400 to in-state students, there have been no significant changes in the last year to make UW-Madison universally more affordable.
However, Fischer said over the next few years UW-Madison plans to do more private fundraising for grants and scholarships, specifically focusing on in-state students.
It's very important for a public university to be affordable,"" Fischer said, emphasizing how education is the key to a student's future. ""To raise the conscious and awareness, that is the focus for this year, but it takes time and is a few years out.""
Connie Hutchison, executive secretary of the Wisconsin Higher Educational Aid Board, agreed that financial aid has become a big part of what attracts in-state students to UW-Madison.
Hutchison said the university also wants to make itself affordable not only for lower-income students, but ""make sure that people who are more the middle income are also able to afford college.""
According to Kiplinger's data, total in-state undergraduate costs for UW-Madison were $15,510 and $11,681 after financial aid. About 3,000 students received financial aid this past year, most of whom were in-state students.
Hutchinson added most out-of-state students receive private scholarships from alumni associations from their respective states. She attributed the huge jump in out-of-state rankings to UW-Madison being a ""top-quality university"" and the out-of-state tuition ""being a reasonable cost for people who are looking to come here verses other schools they might choose in their home state.""
UW-Madison ranked second highest in the Big Ten behind Michigan, which came in at No. 16 for in-state and No. 14 for out-of-state.
