The sticker price for tuition at private colleges is higher than that at public schools, but so is the share of students who get bachelor's degrees within four years.

With that in mind, Juniata College is hoping to lure away families considering public schools with this guarantee: Get a degree from Juniata in four years, or the fifth year's tuition is free.

The offer will apply to incoming freshmen on the liberal arts campus of 1,500 students, starting next fall. Administrators say they want to drive home the point that a private education can be more affordable than a public one -- especially once private school tuition discounts and the longer average time to degree at public colleges and universities are taken into account.

The offer, while not unprecedented, is unusual. Only 10 others among some 1,600 private colleges and universities make similar guarantees, according to the Washington, D.C.-based National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities.

At Juniata, the offer grew out of concern that prospective students were being scared off by the advertised price and were choosing schools belonging to the State System of Higher Education and state-related universities, in particular Penn State University and the University of Pittsburgh.

"In the last several years, particularly in Central Pennsylvania where there is still a fairly significant amount of economic distress, many people who would typically have applied to Juniata and other private liberal arts colleges no longer are even considering it," said John Hille, Juniata's executive vice president. "We're trying to get the message out that a great education can be affordable."

Juniata charges $28,920 a year for tuition, not counting room and board. Once average institutional aid of $13,786 per year is figured in, the school estimates that a bachelor's degree over four years costs $60,536 in tuition.

In comparisons already drawing criticism from public schools, Juniata says its price compares to a six-year total of $120,264 at Penn State that includes actual tuition exceeding $12,000 a year, plus lost earnings while a student studies beyond four years.

Using the same criteria, Juniata put the six-year cost at $107,656 for Pitt students and $89,088 for students at Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania, a state system school.

Pitt's base in-state tuition for a student enrolled in 2004 or later is $12,106 a year; the state system's base tuition is $5,177 a year.

Penn State spokesman Bill Mahon called Juniata's computations misleading and its conclusions "ridiculous." For instance, though the estimate for Shippensburg factors in institutional aid, Juniata's cost estimates for Pitt and Penn State do not. Penn State students on average take 4¹/₂ years to graduate, not six, and are more likely to want dual majors and five-year programs because the institution serves different needs.

"We don't compete with Juniata in any way. We get just shy of 100,000 applications. I forgot Juniata College was even down the road until I heard about this," Mr. Mahon said.

State system spokesman Kenn Marshall said he had a hard time seeing what was so special about the guarantee after hearing Juniata's conditions -- namely, eligibility is limited to freshmen from this country who do not transfer in from another school and maintain "qualitative academic progress" that includes taking an average of 30 credit hours per year.

"A four-year guarantee sounds good, but all you're doing is requiring a student to take a full load of credits every semester," Mr. Marshall said. "Sure, they'd graduate from Juniata in four years. They'd graduate from Shippensburg and any other of our universities in four years."

He said state system tuition, fees, room and board on average cost $13,181.

"That's before financial aid," he said.

"For that lower price," Mr. Marshall said. "You're getting high quality. That's real value."

Juniata puts its four-year graduation rate, as of last year, at 96 percent.

Nationally, 79 percent of recipients earned their bachelor's degrees in four years at private colleges and universities versus 49 percent at state four-year schools, said Tony Pals, a spokesman for the independent college association, citing 2001 Education Department data.