The University of Massachusetts Amherst climbed 11 spots to No. 30 on the 2027 edition of The Princeton Review’s guide to the nation’s Best Value Colleges (public schools), a ranking based on an institution’s stellar academics, affordable cost and strong career prospects for graduates.

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This is the sixth consecutive year UMass Amherst has placed in the Top 50 Best Value Colleges, and is the only public institution in Massachusetts—or New England—to make the list.

“Students who attend these schools don’t have to mortgage their futures to pay for their degrees—and we believe they will graduate with great career prospects,” The Princeton Review said of its methodology for creating the list, which weighed more than 40 data points covering academics, costs, financial aid, debt, grad rates and career/salary data. 

The Princeton Review, a leading tutoring, test prep and college admissions services company, selected UMass Amherst among the institutions included in its 22^nd annual “Best Value Colleges” list, which was released on Sept. 29. 

Selections were based on data from the company’s surveys of administrators at more than 650 colleges nationwide in 2025-26, surveys of students attending the schools, and data from the U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard on school alumni career and salary statistics. 

UMass Amherst also placed in the Top 20 Best Schools for Financial Aid (Public Schools) rankings at No. 13, one of only two New England institutions to make the list. The public schools in this category received the highest financial aid rating, which is based on school-reported data on the percentage of students who were determined to have need and received aid, the percentage of need met for those students, and the percentage of students whose need was fully met.

UMass Dining earned the No. 1 spot for an unprecedented 10^th consecutive year on The Princeton Review’s 2027 list of Best Campus Food, released in August. UMass Amherst also landed at No. 9 in the 2026 edition of The Princeton Review’s Top 50 Green Colleges.

More information about the Best Value Colleges guide, including its methodology and ROI rating criteria, can be found on The Princeton Review website.