The 15 Best Colleges You Can Get Into (MONEY’s Rank) 2024

Each year, MONEY ranks the best four-year colleges in the United States, based on affordability, quality of education, and career success of graduates. The just-released 2016-2017 rankings include 705 colleges that MONEY rates as solid value for your tuition.

While all 705 schools may be great, no college is right for everyone. For example, the ultra-competitive “elite” schools on the list may be out of reach for students who do not have excellent high school grades and high scores on the ACT or SAT.

So, if you’re a B or even C student hoping for a great education, or a stronger student looking for a good safety school, this list of “Best Colleges to Actually Get Into” is worth a closer look.

All of these colleges accept at least 51% of applicants, compared to some elite schools whose acceptance rates are as high as 5%. Most of them placed in the top 50 in the latest MONEY rankings, and none scored lower than 54th.

Sources: U.S. Department of Education, Peterson, PayScale.com, MONEY/College Measures accounts.

15. Michigan State University, Michigan (tie)

Overall financial rank: 54

• Estimated price 2016-2017 without assistance: $26,400
• Estimated price for 2016-2017 with average aid: $17,100
• Early career earnings: $49,600
• Average SAT/AVT score: 1120/26

Michigan State is a Big Ten school with more than 50,000 students, nearly 39,000 of whom are undergraduates. Its students represent all 50 states and more than 130 other countries. MSU is nationally known for its great sports team, the Spartans, and is recognized globally as a major research university.

15. University of Delaware (tie)

Overall financial rank: 54

• 2016-17 estimated price without assistance: $27,300
• Estimated price for 2016-2017 with average aid: $19,300
• Early career earnings: $50,700
• Average SAT/AVT score: 1170/27

The University of Delaware, dating back to 1743, is one of the oldest universities in the United States. Today it is a major research university, with more than 140 bachelor’s degree programs, and wide-ranging majors such as business, education, criminology, and chemical engineering that routinely appear at the top of college rankings. UD is a land-, sea-, and space-grant university, meaning it is committed to research and teaching in agricultural, marine, and space-related fields through an agreement with the U.S. government.

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13. Saint Mary’s University, Texas

Overall financial rank: 52

• 2016-17 estimated price without assistance: $41,100
• Estimated price for 2016-2017 with average aid: $26,700
• Early career earnings: $43,100
• Average SAT/AVT score: 1050/23

Saint Mary’s University is one of three American universities run by the Order of the Brothers of Mary, also known as Marianists. The oldest Catholic university in Texas offers programs in three colleges: Humanities and Social Sciences; Science, engineering and technology; and the Greehy Business School – in addition to the law school and graduate programs. With a diverse student body of 3,600 students, popular majors include business, kinesiology, and biology.

12. Purdue University Main Campus, Indiana

Overall financial rank: 51

• 2016-17 estimated price without assistance: $23,900
• Estimated price for 2016-2017 with average aid: $16,500
• Early career earnings: $56,200
• Average SAT/AVT score: 1200/27

Purdue is a large public university with approximately 39,000 students, including more than 29,000 undergraduates. The majority of its students come from Indiana (55%), but 27% come from other states and 18% from other countries. Purdue University is particularly known for its engineering and agricultural programs, but undergraduates have about 200 different majors to choose from.

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11. College of Saint Benedict, Minnesota

Overall financial rank: 47

• 2016-17 estimated price without assistance: $53,900
• Estimated price for 2016-2017 with average assistance: $30,100
• Early career earnings: $41,800
• Average SAT/AVT score: 1059/26

The College of Saint Benedict is the only Benedictine college for women in the United States. It partners with a neighboring men’s school, St. John’s University, to share academic programs and provide access to resources on both campuses. (Her students are known as “Penny,” while St. John’s students are called “Jonnie.”) About 81 percent of women at St. Benedict graduate within six years, 19 percent higher than at comparable schools. The school accepts students of all faiths, although about 60% are Catholic.

10. Massachusetts Maritime Academy, MA

Overall financial rank: 43

• 2016-17 estimated price without assistance: $23,600
• Estimated price for 2016-2017 with average assistance: $16,400
• Early career earnings: $58,400
• Average SAT/AVT score: 1055/22

Located on Cape Cod, the Massachusetts Maritime Academy is an ideal place to attract lovers of all things related to the sea, which – as the name suggests – describes most of its students. The school’s degrees are limited to the marine industry and include marine engineering, international marine business and marine environmental protection. MMA is structured similar to military academies, and students have the option of earning a Merchant Marine Officer’s License and a Marine Officer’s Commission while in school. All cadets – also called cadets – are required to complete one “sea semester,” during which they spend about seven weeks of training aboard the ship, en route to a variety of U.S. and foreign ports.

9. University of California-Santa Cruz, California

Overall financial rank: 41

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• 2016-17 estimated price without assistance: $35,600
• Estimated price for 2016-2017 with average aid: $26,200
• Early career earnings: $49,600
• Average SAT/AVT score: 1095/23

Imagine you go to school on a 2,000-acre farm. Well, you can almost do that at UC Santa Cruz, where the campus was once a timber plantation and a limestone mine. Students take classes among the redwood trees and celebrate on the sprawling meadows overlooking Monterey Bay. More than 16,000 undergraduates and 1,600 graduate students at this public research university live in a veritable natural bubble an hour and a half from San Francisco. Although the campus is huge, all UC Santa Cruz students belong to one of 10 residential colleges, promoting the feeling of a smaller community.

8. Washington State University, Washington

Overall financial rank: 37

• 2016-17 estimated price without assistance: $29,300
• Estimated price for 2016-2017 with average aid: $23,500
• Early career earnings: $49,200
• Average SAT/AVT score: 1030/22

The vast majority of WSU students come from within the state, and most agree that the WSU experience is worth the price of admission. WSU’s former reputation as a party school appears to be fading. Current students say the classes are challenging and that professors take the time to get to know them in and out of the classroom. Particularly ambitious incoming students can apply to the WSU Honors College.

7. University of Washington – Seattle Campus, Washington

Overall financial rank: 30

• 2016-17 estimated price without assistance: $27,800
• Estimated price for 2016-2017 with average aid: $19,600
• Early career earnings: $54,000
• Average SAT/AVT score: 1230/28

The University of Washington’s main campus in Seattle has emerged as one of the world’s leading research universities. The University of Wisconsin is known for its strong programs in the social sciences, business, medical, and engineering. Due to its proximity to Boeing’s manufacturing facilities, the school has special expertise in aviation and counts many astronauts among its graduates. The University of Wisconsin has encouraging admissions odds for such a top-ranked school: the typical student has SAT scores of around 1350, and the school accepts about 55% of applicants.

6. Earlham College, IN

Overall financial rank: 28

• 2016-17 estimated price without assistance: $56,700
• Estimated price for 2016-2017 with average aid: $24,700
• Early career earnings: $45,600
• Average SAT/AVT score: 1245/29

Earlham began as a Quaker school in 1847, open to friends only. It began accepting non-Quaker students about 20 years later and hiring non-Quaker faculty about 20 years after that. Today just over 12% of the student body is Quaker. Its student body of 1,000 undergraduates is ethnically and nationally diverse—nearly 22% come from abroad and more than 24% are minorities. Earlham prides itself on exposing students to global culture. In addition to welcoming students from more than 80 countries, the school offers courses in 11 languages, including Arabic, Chinese and Swahili.

5. St. John’s University, Minnesota

Overall financial rank: 25

• 2016-17 estimated price without assistance: $52,400
• Estimated price for 2016-2017 with average assistance: $28,300
• Early career earnings: $47,400
• Average SAT/AVT score: 1096/26

St. John’s University is a men’s Catholic school that collaborates with a nearby women’s school, the College of St. Benedict. Penny, students at the women’s college, and Johnny share academic programs and have access to resources on both campuses. Nearly 80% of students graduate within six years, 12% higher than comparable schools. The school accepts students of all faiths, although about 60% are Catholic.

4. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Illinois

Overall financial rank: 22

• 2016-17 estimated price without assistance: $30,800
• Estimated price for 2016-2017 with average aid: $22,100
• Early career earnings: $56,800
• Average SAT/AVT score: 1355/29

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is steadily building its reputation as an outstanding research institution. The university is among the top 15 public schools on the National Science Foundation’s list of high research spenders, and its strongest academic programs include accounting and several types of engineering and physics. Students also have access to the second largest university library system in the country. (Only Harvard is larger.)

3. Clemson University, SC

Overall financial rank: 21

• 2016-17 estimated price without assistance: $30,300
• Estimated price for 2016-2017 with average assistance: $22,700
• Early career earnings: $53,100
• Average SAT/AVT score: 1245/29

Clemson’s history dates back to 1889, when it was founded as an agricultural college. Today it is a major public research university, and while agricultural sciences remains one of the college’s majors, the number of agriculture students outnumbers engineering or business students. Clemson’s graduation rate is 82%, which is 8% higher than schools with similar student demographics, according to MONEY’s calculations.

2. Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Virginia

Overall financial rank: 18

• 2016-17 estimated price without assistance: $26,900
• Estimated price for 2016-2017 with average assistance: $22,600
• Early career earnings: $55,300
• Average SAT/AVT score: 1220/NA

Virginia Polytechnic and State University, or Virginia Tech, is a leader in using technology to teach and have fun. The Campus Math Emporium was a department store with hundreds of computers programmed with math tutorials that increased students’ math success rates. Geography teacher John Boyer (who calls himself ‘The Plaid Avenger’) is regularly voted among the school’s best teachers and has made a name for himself by getting world leaders to have discussions with his classes via Skype. Programs like this are one reason the school has an unusually high graduation rate: 83%, which is 12% higher than the average for its peers.

1. Texas A&M University – College Station, Texas

Overall financial rank: 13

• 2016-17 estimated price without assistance: $23,900
• Estimated price for 2016-2017 with average aid: $15,900
• Early career earnings: $55,100
• Average SAT/AVT score: 1180/26

With about 46,000 undergraduate students, Texas A&M University is the largest school in the top 50 on the MONEY list. It is also one of the most affordable schools for in-state students. Nearly a quarter of students come from low-income families, and Texas A&M accepts 71% of applicants. Known for its business, agriculture, and engineering programs, TAMU also has one of the nation’s largest programs in recreation, parks, and tourism management.

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