Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine just published its ranking of the "best values" in private colleges. The rankings featured two lists: one for the top liberal arts colleges, which offer mostly undergraduate programs, and the other for universities, which also offer graduate degrees.

As a sophomore of Amherst College, I was not surprised to see Swarthmore, Williams, and Amherst round out the top three colleges. Cal Tech, Yale, and Harvard topped the list for the top three universities.

Like many private institutions across the nation, Swarthmore uses its own calculation, in addition to the federal government's formula, to determine who qualifies for need-based aid. "We really want to know your situation and give a fair assessment," says James Bock, the financial aid director at Swarthmore college. The result can be surprising. "People can qualify for aid with incomes of $140,000 and above."

Not only does Swarthmore and these highly competitive liberal arts colleges offer a great education and financial aid packages, but they seem also to come with a degree of social conscience, e.g., the capacity to "change the world energy." Scott Storm, chose Swarthmore because he "wanted a place that was going to be very aware of social and civic responsibilities. One example that was noted was that Swarthmore sent "Swatties" to New Orleans to gut houses and to China to work in Aids clinics.