Kiplinger's bases its college rankings on a combination of outstanding academic quality and an affordable price tag.

We start with nationwide data from more than 500 public four-year colleges and universities, which are provided to Peterson's/Nelnet. We supplement Peterson's data with our own reporting.

We narrow the list to about 120 schools based on several measures of academic quality, including:

• Percentage of the 2008-09 freshman class scoring 600 or higher on the verbal and math components of the SAT (or scoring 24 or higher on the ACT)
• Admission rates
• Freshman retention rates
• Student-faculty ratios
• Four- and six-year graduation rates, which most schools reported for the student cohort entering in 2002

We then rank each school based on cost and financial aid.. We look at:

• Total cost for in-state students (tuition, mandatory fees, room and board, and estimated expenses for books)
• Average cost for a student with need after subtracting grants (but not loans)
• Average cost for a student without need after subtracting non-need-based grants
• Average percentage of need met by aid (need-based assistance)
• Average debt a student accumulates before graduation

To determine out-of-state rankings, we run the academic-quality and cost numbers again, this time using total costs for out-of-state residents and average costs after aid.

In our scoring system, academic quality carries more weight than costs (almost two-thirds of the total). To break ties, we use academic-quality scores and average debt at graduation.

Not included in our list

Our rankings focus on traditional four-year public universities with broad-based curriculums. Unfortunately, that meant we had to leave out some excellent schools with special programs, including military schools and service academies, schools that do not provide housing (their costs could not be compared with other colleges), schools with limited curriculum and private or partially private institutions.