The 25 best colleges in America under $25,000

The average cost of attending a private college was $46,272 last year, but can cost upwards of $60,000 at some institutions.

Fortunately, there are plenty of great schools that cost far less than that.

For our seventh annual list of the 50 best colleges in America, we chose what we perceived to be the top 100 schools and surveyed over 1,000 Business Insider readers, asking them to choose the colleges they think best prepare students for success after graduation. Read more about our methodology here.

We looked at this list and broke out the schools that cost less than $25,000 annually. We considered tuition and mandatory fees.

Most of the schools on the list are public or state schools that grant cheaper tuition rates for in-state residents.