Soka Named Best Value Among 1,200 U.S. Colleges

Students at Soka University in Aliso Viejo are enjoying the best value among all U.S. colleges, according to a recent ranking by CollegeFactual.com.

The study looked at national data from the Department of Education and compared it with a student's average pay and return on investment after graduating.

A college spokeswoman chalked up the school's success to "tremendous financial aid packages.

"Last year we gave out almost $9 million in financial aid to our students, and they had about $3 million in federal and state (aid), so about half of our students for the past three years have been on scholarships," spokeswoman Wendy Harder said. "For a 12-year-old college that's phenomenal."

Part of that financial aid includes full-ride scholarships for all students whose household incomes total less than $60,000.

That explains the school's affordability. But what about the other half of the equation? What about a Soka education positions students to make money after graduating?

"It's a liberal arts education, but it has an international focus," Harder said. "So everybody is taking a non-native language and everyone is spending at least a semester abroad in a country where that language is spoken, and it's a requirement for education. So when they graduate they've lived at least one other culture.

"That opens tremendous doors for our students. One of our tour guides just last year, she had studied Chinese and had gone to China. She ended up getting a job for Deloitte and Touche in Hong Kong. She would have otherwise probably not gotten that job."

"Someday we hope to grow to about 1,000, but we'll have to build more dorms before we do that," she said.