Aug 04, 2014 04:21 PM EDT By J Baulkman, UniversityHerald Reporter

Earlier this year, the Princeton Review released its annual list of the nation's "Best Value Colleges" and its companion book, The Best Value Colleges: The 150 Best-Buy Schools and What It Takes to Get In.

The 2014 list names 150 colleges and universities -- 75 public and 75 private -- the education services company identifies as "Best Value" based on academics, cost and financial aid rewards.

To come up with the list, the Princeton Review surveyed more than 2,000 undergraduate institutions in 2012-13.

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and in as #1 on the "Best Value Public College" list for 2014 while Williams College is the #1 "Best Value Private College." The Princeton Review lists the remaining 65 colleges in each group in alphabetical order.

For this project, which The Princeton Review originated in 2004 and has reported in cooperation with USA TODAY since 2009, the company selects schools based on its analysis of more than 30 data points with cost data reflecting school-reported figures for 2013-14. The company also factors in data it collected over the past three academic years from its surveys of students about their satisfaction with their financial aid awards and academic experiences at their schools.

The Princeton Review's "Best Value Colleges" list appears in two free online resources as well as its companion book, released today. The company posted its list with profiles of the schools at https://www.princetonreview.com/best-value-colleges.aspx.

The Princeton Review's Top 10 Best Value Public Colleges for 2014 are:

• The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• New College of Florida (Sarasota)
• University of Virginia (Charlottesville)
• North Carolina State University (Raleigh)
• University of Michigan - Ann Arbor
• University of California - Los Angeles
• University of Florida (Gainesville)
• The College of William & Mary (Williamsburg, Va.)
• Truman State University (Kirksville, Mo.)
• State University of New York at Binghamton

The Princeton Review's Top 10 Best Value Private Colleges for 2014 are:

• Williams College (Williamstown, Mass.)
• Harvard College (Cambridge, Mass.)
• Swarthmore College (Swarthmore, Pa.)
• Yale University (New Haven, Conn.)
• Princeton University (Princeton, N.J.)
• The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art (New York, N.Y.)
• Vassar College (Poughkeepsie, N.Y.)
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, Mass.)

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