after Wellesley ($35,835, 36%), closest are USC ($30,256, 36.4%), Mercer Univ ($27,784, 41%), Saint Peter's Univ ($23,905, 50.1%), and Agnes Scott College ($23,625, 38.8%), ending with Strayer Univ-Mississippi ($964, 76%).

132 out of the other 912 colleges were ruled out due to missing, unknown, or not-applicable values for average grant aid to undergrads, e.g., Samuel Merritt Univ.

1. The data on undergrad loans, financial aid, and Pell grants are from the Student Financial Aid Data File, 2011-12 (Provisional release) as reported by the National Center for Education Statistics (http://nces.ed.gov/ipeds).
   
2. The percentage of minorities (American Indians or Alaska Natives, Asians or Pacific Islanders, Blacks or African Americans, and Hispanics) among full-time students is calculated from the 12-month Unduplicated Head Count Data File, 2011-12 (Provisional release) as reported by the National Center for Education Statistics (http://nces.ed.gov/ipeds).
   

Wellesley is in Wellesley, MA, is private and nonprofit, degree-granting, a top-100 happiest school, offers on-campus housing, has a Phi Beta Kappa chapter, accepts the Common Application, requires test scores for undergrad admissions, its top major is economics, is on the semester system, and enrolls from 1,000 to 4,999 students.

• USNews Liberal Arts College ranking (7th place)
• Wall St. Journal feeder school ranking (15th place)
• PayScale mid-career median salary ranking (305th place)
• Webometrics world ranking (1,377th place)
• research spending ($10.4M)
• endowment per full-time student ($559,034)
• average full-time teaching salary ($106,671)
• in-state undergrad tuition & fees ($42,082)
• out-of-state undergrad tuition & fees ($42,082)
• average grant aid to undergrads ($35,835)
• cost of a shared room ($6,614)
• research spending per student ($3,962)
• average undergrad student loan ($3,890)
• ratio of female full-time freshmen (100%)
• full-time retention rate (93%)
• undergrads who get financial aid (65%)
• minorities (36%)
• undergrads who receive student loans (32%)
• Asians (20.9%)
• undergrads who get Pell grants (17%)
• average teaching salary differential (men vs. women, 11.1%)
• in-state freshmen (11.1%)
• disabled students (11%)
• tuition & fees increase over three years (10.6%)
• foreign students (10.6%)
• Hispanics (8.9%)
• Blacks or African Americans (6%)
• American Indians or Alaska Natives (0.2%)
• non-resident tuition & fees surcharge (0%)
• average teaching salary differential (women vs. men, -10%)
• 25th percentile SAT math score (640)
• 25th percentile SAT reading score (650)
• 25th percentile SAT writing score (650)
• 75th percentile SAT math score (740)
• 75th percentile SAT reading score (740)
• 75th percentile SAT writing score (750)
• alumni who played in the National Football League (0)
• average January temperature (25.2 degrees)
• dorm capacity (2,211)
• first-year applicants (4,548)
• foreign students (280)
• members of the National Academy of Sciences (0)
• men's basketball Final Four appearances (0)
• Rhodes Scholar alumni (8)
• total 75th percentile SAT score (2,230)
• yearly for-credit students (2,633)
• on-campus yearly property crimes per thousand students (2.03)
• students per faculty member (8)
• annual rainfall (47.2 inches)
• diversity and inclusion ratio (4.94)
• elevation (32 meters)

Sources