From staff reports
Spartanburg Herald-Journal
Published: Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Wofford College once again has been cited by Kiplinger Personal Finance magazine as one of America's best values in higher education.

Wofford moved up 11 spots to No. 31 in the publication's "Best Values in Private Colleges" for 2009-2010. The annual lists ranking 50 private liberal arts colleges and 50 universities that combine outstanding economic value with exceptional education — appear in Kiplinger's December 2009 issue that hits newsstands Tuesday and is available online now at www.kiplinger.com/reports/best-college-values/.

Wofford and Furman University, which came in at No. 39 on the private liberal arts colleges list, were the only South Carolina schools to make either list. Wofford also ranked fifth among liberal arts institutions offering the lowest tuition.

"In a very difficult economy, more and more excellent students are taking a look at Wofford for both the valuable liberal arts education we offer and for our outstanding financial value," David Wood, dean of Wofford, said in a statement. "Wofford made the decision to implement a very modest tuition increase this year – 2.9 percent. Not only was the student experience not diminished, it was enhanced as we launched our innovative new environmental studies program, expanded our language offerings to include a Portuguese tract and expanded our support for our study abroad program."

Financial resources continue to be tight for both parents and colleges in the troubled economy, but many students who applied to college for the 2009–10 academic year actually received more financial help than the previous year's applicants, the magazine reported. Independent colleges boosted financial aid by 9 percent while keeping tuition increases — an average of 4.3 percent — to their lowest levels in four decades, increasing the average cost of a year at a private school to about $35,600, according to the publication.

Selected from a pool of more than 600 private institutions, schools in the Kiplinger 100 were ranked according to academic quality and affordability, with quality accounting for two-thirds of the total.

Pomona College tops the liberal-arts list for the second consecutive year, and the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) heads the private university list for the fourth time running.