Incoming college students are faced with a barrage of questions before settling on the right campus: Does it offer the right major? Is it close to home? Does it have a good reputation? And, of course, how much does it cost?

The average college student graduates $26,000 in debt, according to the Institute for College Access and Success Project on Student Debt in 2011. With that in mind, getting the most bang for your buck becomes a top priority for parents and students alike.

“Each student and parents must critically evaluate the data: student-loan debt, return on investment, lifetime salary earnings, academic performance, skills training, the student’s abilities and interests, and so on,” wrote former U.S. Secretary of Education William J. Bennett and co-author David Wilezol in their best-selling book, “Is College Worth It?”

UC Irvine is ranked 19th on Online College Database’s 50 Public Colleges with the Best Lifetime ROI list.

And this year, The Princeton Review named UC Irvine as one of the Best Value Colleges for 2013 based on assessments of academics, cost and financial aid. In January, the university also ranked 16th in best value among U.S. public colleges by personal finance magazine Kiplinger.

Kiplinger credits UC Irvine’s value to generous financial aid packages that offset the high sticker price for the university’s total cost of attendance. This financial aid contributes to UC Irvine’s lower-than-average student debt. Kiplinger reported that UC Irvine students graduate with an average debt of $18,719, some $7,200 less than the national average.

For the 2013-14 academic year, UC Irvine estimates tuition and fees to run about $14,500 for full-time undergraduate students.

More than half of all University of California students receive aid from the Blue and Gold Opportunity Plan, a program that covers system-wide tuition and fees with financial aid and gift aid for undergrad students with annual family incomes up to $80,000.

In recent surveys conducted by UC Irvine, about 32 percent of students reported that they had nothing to repay at their time of graduation. And 13.6 percent reported that they were graduating with less than $10,000 of debt.

Although the majority of UC Irvine graduates leave with more than $10,000 of debt, 57.6 percent of surveyed seniors said they thought the benefits of attending UCI were worth the financial costs. About 23 percent expressed disagreement and 19.5 percent remained neutral.

“Although I have a pretty large debt after four years … I value my experience at UC Irvine a lot and would not trade it in for anything else,” said Jahanzeb Ashraf, a recent UCI graduate.

“There are ample statistics that show people with more education have higher lifetime earnings,” said UC Irvine Chancellor Michael V. Drake. “But what’s more important is that people with more education also have longer, healthier, and more productive lives. That’s better for them, that’s better for our society, and I think that’s the real value of higher education.”

Contact the writer: ailiff@ocregister.com