College tuition across the U.S. continues to rise, yet Southern Arkansas University has earned another cost-efficient accolade with its recent high ranking by AffordableColleges.com’s “50 Most Affordable Public Schools for Out-of-State Students.”
AffordableCollege.com ranked SAU number six for affordability in the U.S. for out-of-state students. The annual out-of-state tuition cost quoted by the site is the $9,270 from 2013-14, with an institutional financial aid rate of 74%.
“In the five years between the 2008-09 and 2013-14 academic years, the national average out-of-state tuition rose 19%, severely limiting a student’s ability to study in a different state,” said Jordan Reese, outreach manager for AffordableColleges.com. “In order to give students a realistic cost of their higher education away from home, we looked at average in-state tuition and institutional financial aid rate for public schools across the country, narrowing down the list to 50 schools that are most financially accessible.”
This ranking follows several other recent merits for SAU’s affordability and quality. The Affordable Colleges Foundation recently highlighted the MBA program at SAU for affordability and quality on the Affordable Colleges Foundation’s “Best Online MBA Programs for 2014-15.” The SAU MBA was the only program in Arkansas listed among the U.S.’s top 68 programs.
In 2013, SAU was honored for its return on investment by AffordableCollegesOnline.org. SAU was ranked toward the top of the national ROI list, and was the second highest public university in Arkansas.
OnlineU.org also ranks two of SAU’s online Master’s degrees in the top three nationally in their respective categories. The SAU Master of Science in Computer and Information Science is ranked third in the U.S., as is the SAU MBA program.
Along with affordability, SAU maintains a low 16-1 student-teacher ratio and offers cutting edge and unique degree offerings, such as Arkansas’ only degree programs in Computer Game and Animation Design and Marine Biology.
To see how AffordableColleges.com chose SAU in their ranking, visit http://www.affordablecolleges.com/rankings/public-schools-for-out-of-state-students/.
For more information, visit www.SAUmag.edu or find SAU on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or YouTube.
