By Jon Gambrell
Enquirer contributor

OXFORD - Students choose Miami University for a variety of reasons, including an attractive campus, good academic reputation and approachable professors.

According to a new national ranking, they're getting a bargain, too.

Miami this week was named one of the top 100 best-value public universities in the nation by Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine. Ranked No. 53 nationally in the November issue, Miami was also the top-rated bargain in Ohio, followed by Ohio State University (72) and Ohio University (99).

The rankings, which use graduation rates, ACT and SAT scores, student-faculty ratio, tuitions and fees, weighted the final score heavily on quality over cost

Miami University's cost, including tuition and room and board, was $15,833 for in-state and $25,603 for out-of-state. Miami's 2003-04 tuition alone is $8,353.

Next year, however, Miami will begin phasing in its "retail tuition" program, which will charge both in-state and out-of-state freshman students the same rate, $18,103 a year. Each in-state student, however, will get at least $10,000 in aid.

With the university planning to give in-state students special scholarships, MU spokeswoman Holly Wissing said she didn't know how the new plan would affect Miami's ranking in college guides to come.

"It is like a list price vs. an actual price," she said. "We are going to have to explain that when the time comes."

While some students on Miami's Oxford campus agree Miami's costs are reasonable, that wasn't their chief reason for picking the college.

"Miami is a little more upscale than other in-state colleges," said William Kiefer, an 18-year-old freshman from Evendale. "The campus is beautiful and the teachers are really friendly and easy to approach."

Other students were skeptical of any "bargain."

"When you're in high school, you don't know what college it really about," said junior Spanish major Mandy Reigelsperger of Dayton. "The pretty campus sort of sucked me in. You get the prestigious name of a Miami diploma, but I could get the same education at another college for less."

E-mail jgambrell@fuse.net