The 30 US colleges that offer the best value for your money

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Harvard University cracked the top five.

Before you shell out thousands of dollars for your undergraduate education, you'll want to make sure it's worth your time and money.

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.

Washington and Lee University, a small, Virginia-based liberal arts college, stole the show this year, followed by number two ranked Princeton and number three ranked Harvard.

Read on to see which schools cracked the top 30, 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 as highlighted in a report from the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce: