The Princeton Review has released its annual list of “Best Value Colleges” in the country, with the University of North Carolina coming out top of the pile of public colleges and Williams College being ranked best private college.

The “Best Value Colleges” ranking was launched in 2004 in an attempt to identify America’s top undergraduate schools by rating their academics, financial aid, and cost of attendance.

The 2012 list includes 150 undergraduate schools: 75 public and 75 private institutions. California is the state with the most colleges recognized (19).

This year the number one “Best Value Public College” is the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, while Williams College (Williamstown, MA) is voted the number one “Best Value Private College.”

Said Robert Franek, Princeton Review’s SVP/Publisher and lead author of The Best Value Colleges, said:

“We recommend these extraordinary colleges as our ‘best buys’ for 2012 and salute them for all they are doing to keep costs down and / or offer generous aid to applicants with financial need.

“We appreciate the deep concerns families have about affording college: among the 12,000 teen and parent respondents to our 2011 ‘College Hopes & Worries Survey,’ 86% reported financial aid would be ‘very necessary’ for them to pay for college.”

The Princeton Review “Top 10 Best Value Public Colleges for 2012″ include SUNY Binghamton, the University of Florida and the College of William and Mary, while the “Top 10 Best Value Private Colleges for 2012″ include Ivy stalwarts Princeton, Harvard and Yale, as well as the smaller Swarthmore and Hamilton Colleges. For a full list, please visit Princeton Review.