The best educational buy might be a private liberal arts college

I've been going through a book called Liberal Arts on the Brink. Written by Victor Ferrall, an attorney and former Beloit College (WI) president, this book discusses why some liberal arts colleges struggle while others, mainly the more selective, continue to thrive.

Liberal arts colleges, according to Ferrall's findings, are primarily in more isolated locations and enroll an average of approximately 1,600 students. However, some such as Calvin College (MI), which offers engineering degrees, enroll as many as 4,000.

Ferrall makes several points throughout this book about liberal arts colleges that are worth noting:

+ The 225 colleges considered to be liberal arts schools represent only about five percent of all students enrolled in all colleges today.
+ The top 51 liberal arts colleges enroll approximately 105,000 students, or less than one percent of all students enrolled in all colleges.
+ In 2008, these top 51 schools discounted tuition and fees to admitted students by an average of nearly 34 percent. Ten of these schools discounted by more than 40 percent. With an endowment of over $1 billion, Grinnell College (IA) gave students an average discount of more than 57 percent.
+ These top 51 schools are, on average, dependent on tuition and fee revenues to cover less than half of their expenses. Amherst College, regarded as one of the top three liberal arts colleges in the country, relies on tuition and fee income to cover less than fifteen percent of the college's revenues.
+ The schools two tiers below discount tuition even more.
+ The lower the school is ranked, the more likely the school has leaned in the direction of offering vocational majors including business, education, health sciences and nursing. These schools have become more like pre-professional schools--and have been acquistion targets of for-profit education corporations wishing to add vocational offerings.

Depending on the education a student wants, the leading liberal arts colleges, meaning the top 51, plus a smattering of schools in the next tier, could be a better value than attending a public university as an out-of-state student.

For example, today it would cost a student from New Jersey approximately $25,000 in tuition and fees to attend Penn State, the University of Maryland or the University of Delaware; all have been popular destinations for Garden State residents. However, the average costs of these liberal arts colleges in Pennsylvania and Maryland may be lower, if the student qualifies for the average discount:

Tier One schools:

Bryn Mawr College
Dickinson College
Gettysburg College
Lafayette College
Haverford College
Swarthmore College

Tier Two schools:

Allegheny College
Goucher College
Juniata College
Muhlenberg College
Susquehanna University
Ursinus College
Washington and Jefferson College
Washington College (MD)
Westminster College (PA)

All of the schools in Tier One are exceptionally selective, though three, Dickinson, Lafayette and Gettysburg, accepted at least 40 percent of their applicants. The three most selective schools: Bryn Mawr, Haverford and Swarthmore all appeared on U.S. News 2011 list of Great Schools at Great Prices.

Among the Tier Two schools above, Westminster College also appears on the U.S. News Great Schools at Great Prices list. Allegheny, Goucher, Juniata, Susquehanna, Ursinus, Washington and Jefferson and Washington appear on the list of A-Plus Schools for B Students. Ursinus and Washington also appear on the 2011 Up and Comers list.

While U.S. News is a commercial publication and Liberal Arts on the Brink is more of an academic study, both show considerable overlap. They both also show that the more academically rigorous and fiscally stable liberal arts schools may be an excellent value--when that is the education you want.

The best liberal arts schools are showing no sign of decline in prestige or academic respect, and they sometimes pool resources to offer shared services such as job fairs in major employment centers and study abroad programs to try to collectively offer what the larger schools offer on their own. The key is to seek out the right information about the right schools.