(MONEY Magazine) – With four years at the most expensive colleges now costing more than $100,000, making sure you get the most for your education dollar is more important than ever. Our 10 best college buys aren't necessarily cheap -- a year at the California Institute of Technology, which we rank No. 5, will set you back nearly $21,000. All are bargains, however, when compared with schools of similar quality. The top 10 are a remarkably varied group, yet the list represents only a small sample of American higher education's bounty. You'll find many more excellent buys in our ranking of the top 100 schools, as well as the best regional values, starting on page 20. (We explain our methodology there too.) While no ranking can tell you whether a school is suitable for your child, our top 10 list, which begins on page 14, is the best place to start looking.

1 New College of the University of South Florida Set amid palm trees on 120 acres in Sarasota, New College, founded in 1960, embodies MONEY's definition of a great value almost perfectly. An outstanding, 53-member faculty lavishes individual attention on 500 intellectually inclined undergraduates. New College has a student/faculty ratio of 11 to 1; the average for schools in our survey is 14 to 1.) The college's resources also - include a new music and arts building with a 264-seat recital hall and research-grade science facilities -- unusual for a school this small. And since New College is part of Florida's state university system, tuition and fees are a low $7,943 for nonresidents, who make up 48% of the student body, and a mere $2,030 for Floridians; room and board cost all students $3,677 a year. Novocollegians (who average combined SAT scores of 1,296, vs. the national average of 899) are required to design their own courses of study. Each semester, students draw up learning contracts, with help from faculty advisers, that spell out their classes, reading and research for the coming term. To graduate, students must fulfill seven contracts, complete three independent study projects and write a senior thesis and defend it before a faculty committee. The system requires students to show a high degree of personal initiative, but it certainly seems to breed a love of learning: 40% of New College graduates go on to advanced study, vs. 27% for the average school in MONEY's survey.

2 Rice University Cotton baron William Marsh Rice founded his namesake institution more than 100 years ago, envisioning a school where smart students could concentrate on learning without fretting about cost. Until 1965, Rice charged no tuition. It has since risen to $9,650 in 1993-94, up 9.4% in a year, even though Rice's endowment stands at $1.25 billion today -- $312,500 per student, the ninth highest of the nation's private schools. After resigning in 1992, president George Rupp warned that Rice would face money problems in a few years unless it revved up fund raising. Rice officials disagreed, saying that the school's finances are sound. Even at its current tuition plus $5,210 for room and board, Rice is a terrific deal, especially considering that 80% of the students receive financial aid averaging more than $7,000 a year. Among the things they get for their money: a low student/faculty ratio of 9 to 1 and a 1.5-million-volume library. Of the 600 or so freshmen admitted each year -- from an applicant pool of nearly 8,000 -- 86% are in the top 10% of their high school classes, and 75% score 1,270 or better on their SATs. Despite Rice's location in high- energy Houston, the campus is a 285-acre oasis of Mediterranean-style buildings surrounded by 4,000 live oak trees.

3 Rutgers College Located 48 miles southwest of New York City, Rutgers College is the largest (8,550 students) school in New Jersey's state university system. The Raritan River splits the college in two. On the New Brunswick side, the smaller 65-acre College Avenue campus includes Old Queen's, the federal-style administration building erected between 1809 and 1823 that's now a national historic site, and other buildings dating from the 19th century. The 765-acre Busch campus on the river's Piscataway side has dorms, classrooms, libraries, a student center and other facilities built mostly since the 1960s. Students commute between the campuses on free shuttle buses. Along with the rest of the state system, Rutgers College sprang to life in the mid-1980s after Gov. Thomas Kean, now president of private Drew University in Madison, N.J., persuaded the legislature to hike its annual higher- education appropriations. The increases, which totaled 65% from fiscal years 1985 to 1990, enabled the system to recruit many prominent scholars. And a $780 million bond issue helped finance new scientific equipment and an 84,000-square-foot addition to the library. Alas, since 1990, state funding has declined 2%. And tuition and fees have soared 130% in a decade. Today, New Jersey residents, who receive preference in admission and make up 88% of the student body, pay $4,271 in tuition and fees. Out-of-staters are charged $7,809; room and board are $4,454. Minorities represent a hefty 34% of Rutgers College students, vs. the national average of 15% at predominantly white four-year public campuses. School officials are proud to point out that bias incidents are rare.

4 Trenton State College Talk about standing up for your school! In 1992 Trenton State undergrads spoke out in favor of a one-time $500-per-student fee to help fund the school's academic program for 1992-93. TSC officials said they needed the money because a state cap that held annual tuition increases at all New Jersey public schools to 4.5% left them without enough revenue. (Tuition and fees are now $3,857 for in-staters, who represent 92% of the student body, and $5,934 for others; room and board are $5,228.) The state board of higher education objected to the move, calling it an unauthorized tuition increase, but after students testified in support of the charge at public hearings, the board allowed TSC to impose a fee of $350. What inspires such loyalty? Perhaps it's TSC's devotion to its 5,300 students (average freshman SATs: 1,119). Set on 250 wooded acres between two / lakes, TSC's Georgian-style campus has a student/faculty ratio of 15 to 1. Professors, never teaching assistants, conduct every class. Moreover, the school constantly seeks to upgrade its 46 academic programs. Case in point: The engineering technology curriculum has been completely revamped to give students a broader base in electrical, industrial and mechanical engineering. Says spokesman Sue Baldwin-Way: "This will make them more competitive in the job market and more qualified for graduate school."

5 California Institute of Technology Caltech is both the most expensive school on our top 10 (tuition and fees: $16,110; room and board: $4,815) and the hardest to get into. The entering class for 1992 sported average SAT scores of 1,413, and a Caltech brochure boasts that "of all the distinguished universities, Caltech admits the fewest freshmen." Those who scale this Pasadena pinnacle get a supercharged education. The exceptional 5-to-1 student/faculty ratio guarantees close contact with professors. And students regularly work on research projects funded by the grants that Caltech is famous for attracting -- $90.4 million worth in fiscal '93. (In fact, its abundance of U.S. Government grants makes Caltech one of the largest federal contractors in the country.) For example, junior astronomy major Leslie Maxfield, pictured on page 13, has participated in Professor George Djorgovski's search to discover a gravitational lens, which is a kind of celestial body that refracts light. "What's cool is that I was working with a well-known astronomer on something cutting edge," says Maxfield. Twelve Nobel laureates have earned either undergraduate or graduate degrees -- or both -- at Caltech. Linus Pauling, who won a Nobel in chemistry as well as the Nobel Peace Prize, got his Caltech doctorate in 1925. Maxfield notes that her workload doesn't leave much time for a social life. Indeed, Caltech students regularly log 50 hours a week or more delving into technical tomes or laboring in the labs. But to take the pressure off incoming students, all freshman courses are graded pass/fail. And not everything at Caltech revolves around science. As part of a mandatory core curriculum, all students must take several courses in the humanities and the social sciences. Maxfield, for instance, calls German her "fun course." One area where Caltech does not excel is diversity: Women account for only 24% of the student body; blacks make up a mere 1%.

6 University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign Clearly, most of the 26,000 undergrads (average SATs: 1,146) at Urbana/ Champaign feel they made the right choice. Fully 91% of freshmen return to the state school for their sophomore year -- the national average is 77% -- and 76% get their degrees after five years, compared with only 56% nationally. With 150 majors to choose from, the most of any school on our top 10, undergrads have almost unlimited ways to pursue their interests. Architecture students, for example, can concentrate on technology, design, management or historic preservation. And Illinois administrators carefully protect undergrads from the bane of most large universities -- being shut out of courses needed for their majors or ones they simply want to take. Freshmen have first priority in enrolling for classes, and professors have been known to admit an extra body or two to full courses when nudged by the school's ombuds officer, who hears student grievances and sometimes mediates disputes between students and the administration. And the student/faculty ratio of 16 to 1, unusually cozy for a big state campus, also helps combat classroom crowding. One of the original 37 land-grant institutions created during Abraham Lincoln's Presidency, the school retains a deep respect for its farming roots. The university library, with 8.2 million volumes (the seventh largest college collection in the country), was built underground to avoid casting shadows on nearby Morrow Plots, the 0.6-acre field used for the agriculture school's research. Despite its strengths -- and reasonable nonresident tuition and fees of $7,582 -- Urbana/Champaign attracts few out-of-staters. Fully 94% of students are from Illinois, paying tuition and fees of $3,330; room and board are $4,358. Students ride free on city buses that run through the 785-acre campus. Social life revolves around the restaurants of adjacent Campustown and 55 fraternities and 27 sororities, which may make up the largest Greek system this side of the Aegean Sea.

7 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Chapel Hill, the country's oldest public college (founded in 1793), is fighting to maintain its high standards in the face of increasing budget pressures. In the past two years, 32 top-ranked faculty members have abandoned UNC for other schools because their salaries were all but capped by state budget cuts. To stem the brain drain, in May 1993 the state gave the 16-campus UNC system a special appropriation of $7.1 million, part of which went to boost professorial pay. And so far, at least, the faculty defections haven't scared away students. The 1993 incoming class had 3,484 freshmen -- 234 more than expected -- because a higher-than-usual percentage of admitted students decided to enroll. One reason for the school's enduring popularity is that Chapel Hill offers a quintessential college experience, from its 730-acre picture-book campus to the partying that generally starts Thursday night and lasts through the weekend. Sports are a major part of campus life too: The Tar Heels won the 1993 NCAA basketball crown. Michael Jordan is just one notable professional athlete who got his degree at Chapel Hill. Students still manage to study, however, and a creditable 62% graduate in four years or less. It helps to be a self-starter, though. Chapel Hill professors are known not for their teaching but for their scholarly output. Chemistry, business and journalism are among the school's strengths. For North Carolinians, Chapel Hill is both a bargain and a popular safety school. They pay tuition and fees of only $1,419, plus room and board of $3,950, and, thanks to a state law that reserves 82% of freshman slots for residents, 64% of those who apply get in. (Children of nonresident alumni also get preference in admission.) For nonresidents, the odds and costs swing the other way: Their tuition and fees are $8,461, and just 14% of applicants make it. Freshmen from out of state have average SATs of 1,270, vs. the 1,122 average for the entire class.

8 Northeast Missouri State Northeast Missouri State looks like what you'd expect of a typical sleepy, farm-state campus. The 5,484 undergrads are fresh-faced, and crimes as minor as the theft of a student's bike merit articles in the school paper. But Northeast Missouri means business academically: Its freshmen sport average SATs of 1,030 and high school grade point averages of 3.47. It wasn't always this way. In 1985, recognizing that the local farm population had dwindled, Northeast Missouri set out to transform itself from a minor regional college into what it is today. To that end, NMSU, which had attracted mainly business and education majors, placed a heavier emphasis on the liberal arts, beefing up programs in the sciences, psychology, English, political science and history. Faculty members gain tenure primarily by teaching well, not just by publishing academic articles or conducting research; the student/faculty ratio is 16 to 1. Today, 40% of NMSU's graduates pursue advanced degrees -- up from only 16% in 1989. And most NMSU grads can face the future without a heavy debt load, since tuition and fees are just $2,556 for Missourians and $4,436 for others; room and board are $3,080. Only 60% of students earn their degrees within five years, however, a record that is barely above the average of schools in our survey. One drawback to attending NMSU is its remote location in Kirksville, which lies deep in farm country 170 miles northwest of St. Louis. The school makes every effort to bring opera, ballet, theater companies and even the St. Louis Symphony to campus for performances, but undergrads accustomed to livelier surroundings -- and NMSU draws 30% of its students from out of state -- may have a hard time adjusting to life in a town with only one movie theater and a handful of bars and fast-food restaurants.

9 State University of New York at Binghamton Binghamton attracts some of the state's top students to its wooded, 600-acre campus 200 miles northwest of New York City. More than half of entering freshmen graduated in the top 10% of their high school classes, and their SAT scores average 1,145. The library, labs and computer centers are open past midnight to accommodate heavy student demand. Even jocks hit the books hard: The school has more athletes with at least a B+ average than any other SUNY campus. In spite of a 3.3% reduction in state funding for the 29 state-run campuses, SUNY's trustees voted to freeze tuitions for 1993-94 following two years of sharp hikes. But after a fee increase to $391 from $339, Binghamton's tuition and fees are now $3,041 for New Yorkers and $6,941 for out-of-staters; room and board dropped 8% to $4,700. In return, Binghamton provides its 9,000 undergrads, 95% of whom come from New York State, with a 1.4-million-volume library, classes that average 30 or fewer students (despite a relatively high student/faculty ratio of 18 to 1) and highly regarded schools of engineering and management. Binghamton delivers a world-class education in more ways than one. The SUNY system sponsors more than 100 study-abroad programs in 38 different countries. And Binghamton offers an unusual option called Languages Across the Curriculum (LxC for short). Students in several fields, such as business management ; and accounting, can improve their linguistic and cultural skills by choosing foreign-language textbooks and completing assignments in that language. In the spring of '93, 175 students enrolled in LxC; eventually, the school hopes to extend LxC to all fields of study.

10 Hanover College Hanover, a private liberal arts school in rural southeastern Indiana, steadfastly preserves the standards of an earlier time. Its 1,070 students (average SATs: 1,055) take 16 required courses, including philosophy, theology and four semesters of a foreign language. Professors monitor class attendance. If students cut too many classes, their grades are cut too. Alcohol and overnight visits with the opposite sex are forbidden. Students who want to let off steam must travel 45 miles east across the Kentucky border to Louisville. Hanover's solid education comes at below-market rates, thanks to an endowment of $100,000 per student (in the top 10% of all U.S. colleges). Tuition and fees are just $7,750, and room and board $3,200. With the student/ faculty ratio a comfortable 14 to 1, the average class size is 17. One problem: lack of diversity. Ninety-five percent of Hanover's students are Caucasian; in part, that's a refiection of the homogeneous population of the school's surrounding area. The school year consists of two 13-week fall and winter semesters and one four-week spring semester. During each spring semester, students concentrate on a single topic, sometimes traveling abroad. In the spring of 1994, for instance, a course on Dante's poetry will be conducted in Florence. Fully 70% of Hanover's faculty live on campus, as do nearly all students, who regularly dine at professors' homes. Says Hanover spokesman Cheryl Gaus: "Faculty members are really interested in the students as individuals. You're going to run into faculty members outside the classroom. You'll work out with them at the gym."