The Princeton Review's Top 10 Colleges for Financial Aid

In the recently published 2012 edition of The Best 376 Colleges, The Princeton Review ranked 613 colleges for their ability to meet students' financial needs. In the current economic climate, few issues are more important to prospective college students and their families. The ten colleges and universities below all received The Princeton Review's highest score for financial aid:

• Carleton College (Northfield, MN)
• Claremont McKenna College (Claremont, CA)
• Columbia University (New York, NY)
• Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering (Needham, MA)
• Pomona College (Claremont, CA)
• Princeton University (Princeton, NJ)
• Swarthmore College (Swarthmore, PA)
• Thomas Aquinas College (Santa Paula, CA)
• Vassar College (Poughkeepsie, NY)
• Yale University (New Haven, CT)

Click on any school's name to learn about the school, its costs, and its admissions standards. Not too surprisingly, the list includes some of the country's top liberal arts colleges and top universities. These are schools with the financial resources to offer excellent financial aid.

Olin is actually less of a bargain than it used to be--back before the economy tanked, the college awarded every student full tuition. Even today, however, all students still get significant financial awards. Thomas Aquinas is probably the least familiar school to most readers--it's a tiny Catholic college with a great books curriculum and no traditional majors. It also has an impressive graduation rate and represents an excellent value; it fully deserves its place on this list.

See the official Princeton Review press release to learn more and see how these ten colleges were chosen.