The 20 private colleges in the US that offer the best value for your money

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Private college comes with a sizable price tag, but oftentimes, it's a worthy investment.

Kiplinger recently released its list of 300 best-value public and private schools, ranked based on quality — including test scores of incoming students, admission rates, academic support, and graduation rates — and cost measures, such as total cost, financial aid packages, and average debt at graduation.

Read Kiplinger's full methodology here.

Here, we rounded up the 20 best-value private colleges on the list, along with total annual cost, average need-based aid, and average student debt upon graduation for each.

We also included the median earnings of students 10 years after starting their studies, from the US Department of Education's College Scorecard:

20. Stanford University

Total annual cost: $61,852

Average need-based aid: $41,620

Average debt upon graduation: $19,230

Median earnings 10 years after enrolling: $80,900 

19. Amherst College

Total annual cost: $64,772

Average need-based aid: $47,243

Average debt upon graduation: $14,490

Median earnings 10 years after enrolling: $56,800 

18. Colgate University

Total annual cost: $63,580

Average need-based aid: $41,428

Average debt upon graduation: $21,405

Median earnings 10 years after enrolling: $61,500