First in value

The News & Observer
January 10, 2010

Sometimes you get what you pay for. And sometimes you get a bit more. That seems to be the explanation for UNC-Chapel Hill's designation, once again this year, as Kiplinger.com's Best Value in Public Colleges.

Kiplinger's concludes that UNC-Chapel Hill's combination of academic quality and relative affordability is tops in U.S. public higher education (N.C. State University, also commendably, ranks 10th). According to Kiplinger's, at UNC-Chapel Hill - which it terms "an academic superstar that competes with the Ivies" - the annual in-state cost for students with financial need "comes to a dirt-cheap $5,912."... What's indisputable is that strong support from the state and its taxpayers enables Chapel Hill to offer high quality at a relatively low cost to those students who gain admission.... North Carolina can be proud of its university system, and should continue to support it well even - perhaps especially - in hard times.  Click here to read more.