(MONEY Magazine) – Eight unbeatable deals The following schools charge no tuition, and four of them -- the military academies -- also provide free room and board. They are not included in our value rankings because of the special circumstances noted below, but you will find detailed data about each in "MONEY's Guide to 1,010 Colleges," which begins on page 70.

-- In exchange for free education, students at Berea College in Berea, Ky. work for 10 to 14 hours a week at campus jobs. At College of the Ozarks in Point Lookout, Mo., students pay their way by putting in 15 hours a week at campus jobs and, one week each semester, 40 hours. nStudents at Cooper Union in New York City can major only in art, architecture or engineering. The Webb Institute of Naval Architecture in Glen Cove, N.Y. offers just two majors: naval design and marine engineering.

-- Graduates of all four military academies must serve time on active military duty. The Coast Guard Academy in New London, Conn. requires a minimum of five years of service. The U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md. and the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs require six years. Graduates of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point (N.Y.) face a seven-year obligation.

Costly but worth it Of the 78 schools out of 1,010 that charge more than $17,500 in tuition and fees, MONEY's value analysis shows only 16 are worth it. They are ranked by the academic strengths we measure.

1. Yale University (Conn.) $19,840 2. Pomona College (Calif.) 17,900 3. Johns Hopkins U. (Md.) 19,280 4. Dartmouth College (N.H.) 19,650 5. Columbia U. (N.Y.) 18,738 6. Swarthmore College (Pa.) 19,316 7. Williams College (Mass.) 19,720 8. Washington U. (Mo.) 18,534 9. Harvard U. (Mass.) 19,820 10. Stanford U. (Calif.) 18,669 11. Amherst College (Mass.) 19,760 12. Princeton U. (N.J.) 20,210 13. Cornell U. (N.Y.) 19,066 14. U. of Chicago (Ill.) 19,236 15. Wellesley College (Mass.) 18,705 16. Barnard College (N.Y.) 18,646

Small liberal arts schools The 20 best values among schools with traditional liberal arts programs and 1,600 or fewer students 1. New College of U. of South Fla. 2. Hanover College (Ind.) 3. St. Mary's College of Maryland 4. Fisk University (Tenn.) 5. University of the South (Tenn.) 6. Hendrix College (Ark.) 7. Hillsdale College (Mich.) 8. Centre College (Ky.) 9. Sweet Briar College (Va.) 10. Wabash College (Ind.) 11. Emory and Henry College (Va.) 12. Centenary College of La. 13. Pomona College (Calif.) 14. Claremont McKenna College (Calif.) 15. Austin College (Texas) 16. Salem College (N.C.) 17. Illinois College 18. Agnes Scott College (Ga.) 19. Southwestern U. (Texas) 20. Elms College (Mass.)

Black college values Among historically black schools, these are the top five buys. 1. Spelman College (Ga.) 2. Fisk University (Tenn.) 3. Howard University (D.C.) 4. Tuskegee University (Ala.) 5. Xavier University of Louisiana

Top public schools ranked by in-state tuition These are the 22 best public school values when we use in-state tuition and fees in our analysis. 1. UNC-Chapel Hill $1,419 2. New College (Fla.) 2,030 3. University of Texas-Austin 1,460 4. University of Florida 1,820 5. Florida State University 1,860 6. University of Idaho 1,548 7. University of Wyoming 1,908 8. Auburn University (Ala.) 2,100 9. Texas A&M University 1,826 10. North Carolina State 2,092 11. University of Iowa 2,455 12. University of Arizona 1,892 13. University of Georgia 2,352 14. SUNY-Binghamton 3,060 15. U. of Wisconsin-Madison 2,736 16. New Mexico Tech 1,858 17. SUNY-Albany 2,936 18. University of Washington 2,907 19. Iowa State 2,451 20. U. of Colorado-Boulder 2,702 21. Northeast Missouri State 2,722 22. Georgia Tech 2,343

Women's colleges Of the 39 schools in MONEY's ranking that admit only women, a record-breaking 10 placed among our top 100 values this year. 1. Spelman College (Ga.) 2. Sweet Briar College (Va.) 3. Salem College (N.C.) 4. Agnes Scott College (Ga.) 5. Rosemont College (Pa.) 6. Elms College (Mass.) 7. Chestnut Hill College (Pa.) 8. Wells College (N.Y.) 9. Scripps College (Calif.) 10. Marymount College (N.Y.)

Scientific and technical schools These are the 10 best values among schools that specialize in science and technical programs. 1. California Institute of Technology 2. Harvey Mudd College (Calif.) 3. New Jersey Institute of Technology 4. Rose-Hulman Inst. of Technology (Ind.) 5. Virginia Polytechnic Institute 6. New Mexico Tech 7. Georgia Institute of Technology 8. Iowa State University 9. Michigan Technological University 10. North Carolina State University

Top values ranked by choosiness Here's how 45 of our top values compare as buys when ranked against schools that are equally demanding about academic qualifications in admissions. (The schools determine their own categories.)

Most selective Students at these schools ranked in the top 20% of their high school classes, with average grades of B+ or better and SAT scores of at least 1,200 or ACT scores of 29 or above. 1. New College (Fla.) 2. Rice University (Texas) 3. SUNY-Binghamton 4. California Institute of Technology 5. U. of North Carolina-Chapel Hill 6. SUNY-Geneseo 7. Yale University (Conn.) 8. Washington and Lee (Va.) 9. Trinity University (Texas) 10. Pomona College (Calif.) 11. Claremont McKenna College (Calif.) 12. Harvey Mudd College (Calif.) 13. Johns Hopkins University (Md.) 14. Dartmouth College (N.H.) 15. University of Virginia

Highly selective Most students at these schools were in the top 40% of their high school classes, with average grades of B or better and SAT scores of 1,100 or above or ACT scores of at least 27. 1. Trenton State (N.J.) 2. Northeast Missouri State 3. Rutgers-New Brunswick (N.J.) 4. Spelman College (Ga.) 5. St. Mary's of Maryland 6. Grove City College (Pa.) 7. University of Texas-Austin 8. Wake Forest University (N.C.) 9. U. of Illinois-Urbana/Champaign 10. SUNY-Albany 11. SUNY-Stony Brook 12. University of the South (Tenn.) 13. Hendrix College (Ark.) 14. SUNY-Buffalo 15. Centre College (Ky.)

Selective Most students at these schools ranked in the top 50% of their high school classes, with average grades of B- or better and SAT scores of 950 or higher or ACT scores above 22. 1. Hanover College (Ind.) 2. University of Georgia 3. Hillsdale College (Mich.) 4. Miami University (Ohio) 5. University of Iowa 6. Emory and Henry College (Va.) 7. Clemson University (S.C.) 8. Samford College (Ala.) 9. Centenary College of Louisiana 10. Creighton University (Neb.) 11. Austin College (Texas) 12. Berry College (Ga.) 13. Salem College (N.C.) 14. Illinois College 15. U. of South Carolina