PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — Officials at the University of Maine at Presque Isle recently announced that the institution has been named one of the top 20 most affordable colleges in the Northeast by Student Loan Hero, a personal finance online organization that works to provide resources, tools, and information on student loan debt to students across the nation.
UMPI was listed as the number-7 institution in the ranking, behind six colleges in the City University of New York (CUNY) system, where the Excelsior Scholarship — a tuition-free college program for state residents whose household income is at or below $125,000 — has been implemented.
“We count ourselves in excellent company in this ranking of the Northeast’s most affordable colleges, and are proud to appear as the first college from not only the State of Maine, but throughout all of New England,” UMPI President Ray Rice said.
“We believe it’s of fundamental importance to provide a high-quality, affordable education to all of our students, and are pleased to see that showcased in this ranking as the most affordable four-year college in New England.”
The survey looked at 310 public and private colleges in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Vermont to determine where students pay the lowest tuition and graduate with the least amount of student debt. In order to complete this ranking, Student Loan Hero used information reported to online college database Peterson’s to compare each college’s tuition and fees as well as their graduates’ average student debt.
UMPI’s tuition and fees came in at $7,884 in the ranking, compared to the national average of $9,970 for in-state students at four-year public schools. Its average debt was listed at $22,934, or about half of the $39,400 average student debt for the Class of 2017.
“This third-party recognition provides further outside evidence of what we’ve been saying all along as part of our The Way It Should Be campaign,” said Patricia Armstrong, UMPI admissions director. “We are affordable. Really, really affordable.”
Submitted by the Community and Media Relations Office of the University of Maine at Presque Isle.
