MONEY.com announced its sixth annual Best Colleges for Your Money List with Toccoa Falls College proudly making the list for the first time. This comprehensive list of more than 700 colleges showcases a wide variety of schools, ranging from elite colleges and public universities to smaller specialized colleges.

“College is the ultimate investment and our Best Colleges franchise gives us an opportunity to connect with families leading up to one of their most significant financial milestones. Higher education is a hot topic, and with more options than ever, we offer insight into educational quality, affordability and alumni success, and we help guide students in the right direction,” says Editorial Director of MONEY.com and Finance Content Strategy Adam Auriemma.

Methodology

MONEY’s rankings include only U.S. colleges that have sufficient reliable data to be analyzed. Colleges must have a graduation rate at or above the median for their institutional category (private, public or historically black college or university), or they must fall in the top 25% of the value-added graduation analysis. In other words, they must have unusually high graduation rates compared with schools that serve students with similar test scores and socioeconomic backgrounds.

Institutions were screened out if they showed at least two signs of financial difficulties, such as low bond ratings or being labeled as having financial problems by the U.S. Department of Education. MONEY also screened out military academies that require a commitment of service in exchange for free tuition because of the difficulty of estimating the cost of the service commitment.

The 745 schools were ranked based on 26 factors in the three categories including quality of education, affordability, and outcomes.