It's tough for any small school to get noticed among the thousands of colleges competing for prospective students' attention.

It's especially tough if that small school is just down the road from Penn State, one of the biggest schools in the nation.

However, Juniata College, a 1,500-student private liberal arts university about 30 miles from State College, managed to get noticed recently with its new guarantee: Graduate in four years or the fifth year is free. It sounds like a pretty good deal, especially when faced with Juniata's $28,250 annual tuition.

What's the college's magic technique for ensuring students don't just loaf around on the administration's dime?

A required average of 30 credit hours per year.

That's the secret: If you take enough credits, you'll graduate on time. Shocking.

Juniata is billing itself as a cheaper alternative to Penn State and other public universities, even though Penn State's annual tuition is about $16,000 less.

They're right -- but only if you get no financial aid at Penn State, even though Penn Sate has an average financial aid package of $14,778 for eligible students.

Plus, for Juniata to be a cheaper alternative to Penn State, you have to take six years to graduate -- even though Penn State's average graduation rate is four and a half years. For those extra two years, they added in the extra tuition and lost earnings from that killer job you'll definitely have right after you graduate.

Juniata's guarantee is an interesting idea, but they're trying to compete where they can't win. If they wanted to talk about smaller class sizes or a more intimate experience, they might have an argument.

But on price? Penn State's going to win every time. With the returns to scale provided by 40,000 students and money from the government, the playing field just isn't level.

If price is a primary factor in your college decision, a public university is still the way to go.

However, the contrast isn't as clear as it was years ago.

As a public university,Penn State already has the highest in-state tuition in the Big Ten conference. Given the rate at which tuition is rising and the fact that state appropriations aren't keeping pace, Penn State is likely to retain that title for the near future.

The fact that Juniata can even try to make this price argument should be a warning to Penn State that it can't keep raising tuition indefinitely and still retain its price advantage.