Calvin Named a Best Value

April 18, 2005 == MEDIA ADVISORY

Calvin College is one of the nation's "best value" undergraduate institutions
according to The Princeton Review.

The New York-based education services company chose Calvin as one of 81
schools it recommends in the new 2006 edition of its book, America's Best Value
Colleges (Random House / Princeton Review, $15.95), on sale April 19, 2005.

The book is a guide to colleges with outstanding academics, generous financial
aid packages and relatively low costs. It includes public and private colleges
and universities in 35 states. In Michigan the only two schools selected are
Calvin and Albion (the Princeton Review will post a complete list of the
schools in the book on its website <www.PrincetonReview.com> on April 18).

The Princeton Review selected the schools for the book based on data the
company obtained from administrators at over 350 colleges, and surveys of
students attending them. Factors included academics, tuition GPA (the sticker
price minus average amount students receive in scholarships and grants),
financial aid (how well colleges meet students' financial need), and student
borrowing.

Says Robert Franek of the Princeton Review: "Bottom line: the 81 schools that
met our criteria for this book are all great college education deals."

Calvin's Tom McWhertor, vice president for enrollment and external relations,
doesn't disagree.

He notes that with about 85% of Calvin's 2005-2006 budget slated to come from
tuition and room and board, Calvin has to deftly manage its financial resources
in order to both offer a superb academic education and remain a good value.

"Our tuition and room and board charges continue to be well below the national
average for four-year private colleges," says McWhertor. "Even more so when
you look at schools that are more comparable to Calvin academically."

In fact, this year, Calvin's tuition, room and board and fees are $3,500 below
the national average.

And, McWhertor says, Calvin has a strong financial aid program which serves
students and their families well. In fact, scholarships and financial aid for
2005-2006 went up 6.5 percent, and Calvin will award almost $48 million in
total aid in 2005-2006. Over 90 percent of the Calvin student body will
receive some form of financial aid, making the actual cost to attend Calvin far
less, in most cases, than the $25,510 figure. The average need-based award at
Calvin next year will be close to $13,000.

America's Best Value Colleges has three-page profiles on the colleges, advice
about applying for admission and financial aid, and a ranking list of the "Top
10 Best Value Colleges" overall. The profile of Calvin offers a concise
summary of Calvin's core characteristics.

"It offers an abundant number of majors, a very rigorous core curriculum, a
challenging and competitive honors program, and a dedicated and uniformly
excellent faculty," reads the profile. "Religion permeates the campus, and
Christian values are a huge and unmistakable priority. On the whole, Calvin
students are a conspicuously religious bunch, and they have numerous
opportunities to explore faith at an academic and spiritual level. However,
Calvin is not the kind of place that
shoves religion down its students' throats."

The media contact for Princeton Review books is Jeanne Krier at 212-539-1350
or JeanneK@aol.com

-end-
Received on Mon Apr 18 10:08:57 2005