GAMBIER – Kenyon College ranked ninth on a list of the top 10 "best value" colleges in Ohio, a recent news release said.
SmartAsset, a financial company, compiled the list.
"The study compares schools based on a variety of data sources, including starting salary, tuition, living expenses, student retention rate and scholarships awarded," the company said.
Ohio State University ranked first in the state, followed by Case Western Reserve, Cedarville University and Miami University-Oxford.
At Kenyon, annual tuition and annual starting salaries for graduates are approximately the same at around $55,000, the study said. Average scholarships are $36,738; student retention rate is 89% and living costs are $15,850 a year.
"We gave 25% weighting to starting salary, tuition and living costs," SmartAsset said. "We then gave 12.5% weighting to scholarships and grants, as well as retention rate, to come up with our Best Value Colleges Index. Schools were ranked in accordance with their score on the index, with the No. 1 school receiving a score of 100 and each additional school's index value representing how closely they compare."
Kenyon received an overall score of 89%.
Ohio State has a tuition of $10,726, an average starting salary of $56,900 and a retention rate of 94%, the survey said
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology was the nation's top school in the survey. It has an average starting salary of $88,300, an annual tuition of $51,832 and a retention rate of 99%.
Located on a rural, 1,000-acre campus in Gambier, Kenyon has only 1,730 students and an average class size of only 15, the school said on its website.
Kenyon has students from 48 states and 49 countries, with 20% of its student body identifing as African American, Asian American, Latino/Hispanic American, Native American or multiethnic, the college said. Ninety-nine percent of its tenure-tracked faculty members have a Ph.D. or other terminal degree in their fields.
Also making the top-10 list in Ohio were the University of Cincinnati, Ohio Northern University, Franciscan University of Steubenville, the University of Dayton and Youngstown State University.
