Personal touch

In a modest classroom on the bay side of campus, Mike Michalson walks his students through the philosophical conundrums posed by Martin Buber's I and Thou. A student asks: "Can you love a tree, according to Buber?" Michalson smiles. "Sure. Just try cutting one down to build a new dorm. Then you'll find out how many people love trees."

Michalson, who also happens to be New College's president, represents a rarity among college administrators. "I teach freshmen every year, to make sure they get acquainted with the president and I with them." He has little problem putting names to faces: Only 761 students attend this four-year honors school. New College of Florida stakes its reputation on individual study, independent research and intense collaboration with teachers; class size can dip as low as five.

For Ravi Banerjee of Darien, Conn., those qualities have allowed him to pursue his passion for studying rain forests. When he was a freshman, he went on a weeklong expedition to Peru. Last summer, he traveled on a Smithsonian Institution project to Panama, where he taught tree-climbing -- a skill he learned while researching the rain-forest canopy.

But perhaps Banerjee's most exciting adventure occurred at last fall's annual banquet of the New York Explorers Club, of which he is a student member. To the delight of onlooking guests, Banerjee and another student rappelled from the ceiling of a Manhattan restaurant. When they hit the floor, says Banerjee, "waitresses were waiting with our drinks and tux jackets."

As a Connecticut resident, he pays about $27,000 a year for the privilege of climbing trees and descending from ceilings. That's pricey compared with in-state costs at New College -- which total $11,097 -- but a bargain compared with Brown University, the other school Banerjee was considering. At Brown, total costs approach $44,000 annually.

Banerjee knows he made the right choice in attending this quirky school, which boasts a giant chess board, an Ultimate Frisbee team and a knitting club that calls itself the Anarchy Death Sticks. "I meet at least once a week with my advisor. I have lunch with my professor once a month. New College is exactly what I was looking for."

Big business

Three hours north at the state's flagship university, in Gainesville, Fla., the atmosphere could hardly be more different. Think big: Big campus. Big buildings. Big-name football team in a stadium that holds 90,000 screaming fans.

The University of Florida also includes many of Florida's highest-achieving students, the nation's fourth-largest student body and some of the world's top research facilities. President Bernie Machen hopes to secure UF's spot in the uppermost tier of public institutions by lowering class size and improving graduation rates. "We have a serious shortfall in our ability to hire faculty and academic advisors," says Machen. He recently proposed charging incoming students an extra $500 per semester to fund new hires.

Meanwhile, students such as David Byer of Ewing, N.J., enjoy academia on a large scale. Byer, who's studying telecommunications, says he has gotten "tons of hands-on experience that helped me get an internship at Sony TV in California. The opportunities here are just immeasurable."

As for Dunn, she loves everything about Gator Nation, including the performing arts, the football and basketball teams, and the natural beauty of the campus, which includes a lake and a wildlife preserve. "The university has a great reputation that's getting better," she says. "And you can't beat a free education. It would be stupid to pass that up."

Beyond the 100

Our rankings focus on traditional four-year schools with broad-based curriculums. As a result, schools that offer great value but focus on special or narrow academic programs are excluded.

For example, the military and service academies -- Air Force, Army, Coast Guard, Merchant Marine and Navy -- all rank near the top of our list for academic quality. They charge no tuition and pay students to attend. But applicants to the federal academies generally must obtain congressional or military nominations and serve in the armed forces after graduation.

Cornell University, best known as a member of the Ivy League, is another exception. Four of Cornell's colleges -- Architecture, Arts & Sciences, Engineering and Hotel Administration -- are part of the privately endowed university, which we consider a private institution. But three of Cornell's undergraduate colleges are land-grant state schools that charge a much lower tuition. New York State residents who are students in the colleges of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Human Ecology, and Industrial and Labor Relations pay about $18,000 a year for tuition and fees.

SEE THE 100 BEST VALUES IN PUBLIC COLLEGES

-- Melissa Steeley helped compile the data for this special report.

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