Payscale’s 2018 ROI Survey Finds the Colleges That Actually Pay Off
You might have heard the term ROI (Return on Investment) in a business class or if you’ve ever thought about doing a startup, but it’s the first thing that came to mind when you chose your college.
Payscale thinks about it in relation to higher education, though, and they put together and annual ROI survey that gets into all the numbers.
Taking the full cost of a four-year education (including tuition and fees, housing, books and supplies) and subtracting that from the total earned in a 20-year period (the median salary for a bachelor’s degree) by graduates is the basic formula. Average student loan debt and average years to graduate are also factored in, as well as that pesky in-state/out-of-state thing. (But you know, math, meh.)
As the Payscale team writes in their introduction:
No matter how you look at it, college is an investment — both of time and money. The benefit to this particular investment is that there are returns far beyond the obvious monetary ones. However, the financial aspects of evaluating college return on investment cannot be ignored. And some schools are simply doing a better job of setting their alumni up for success in the job market.
So, which schools deliver the best ROI? Here’s the top 25:
|
Rank
|
School Name
|
20 Year Net ROI
|
Total 4 Year Cost |
Graduation Rate |
Typical Years to Graduate |
Average Loan Amount |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
United States Merchant Marine Academy (Service Academy)
|
$1,094,000 | $34,900 | 76% | 4 | $20,000 |
| 2 |
United States Military Academy (Service Academy)
|
$1,041,000 | $0 | 86% | 4 | N/A |
| 3 |
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Private)
|
$1,015,000 | $249,000 | 93% | 4 | $30,200 |
| 4 |
United States Naval Academy (Service Academy)
|
$1,004,000 | $0 | 86% | 4 | N/A |
| 5 |
SUNY Maritime College (In-State)
|
$1,003,000 | $95,300 | 57% | 5 | $29,600 |
| 6 |
Harvey Mudd College (Private)
|
$978,000 | $272,000 | 93% | 4 | $25,500 |
| 7 |
SUNY Maritime College (Out-of-State)
|
$964,000 | $134,000 | 57% | 5 | $29,600 |
| 8 |
Colorado School of Mines (In-State)
|
$909,000 | $126,000 | 77% | 4 | $26,700 |
| 9 |
United States Air Force Academy (Service Academy)
|
$905,000 | $0 | 83% | 4 | N/A |
| 10 |
California Institute of Technology (Private)
|
$887,000 | $250,000 | 94% | 4 | $30,900 |
| 11 | $870,000 | $178,000 | 71% | 6 | $54,500 | |
| 12 |
Georgia Institute of Technology-Main Campus (In-State)
|
$856,000 | $101,000 | 86% | 5 | $33,500 |
| 13 |
Colorado School of Mines (Out-of-State)
|
$840,000 | $195,000 | 77% | 4 | $26,700 |
| 14 |
The California Maritime Academy (In-State)
|
$837,000 | $87,700 | 62% | 4 | $28,600 |
| 15 |
Stevens Institute of Technology (Private)
|
$832,000 | $250,000 | 83% | 5 | $26,700 |
| 16 |
Stanford University (Private)
|
$811,000 | $255,000 | 94% | 4 | $32,200 |
| 17 |
Webb Institute (Private)
|
$801,000 | $257,000 | 83% | 4 | $18,000 |
| 18 |
Princeton University (Private)
|
$797,000 | $240,000 | 97% | 4 | $18,100 |
| 19 (tie) |
Babson College (Private)
|
$793,000 | $254,000 | 91% | 4 | $32,100 |
| 19 (tie) |
The California Maritime Academy (Out-of-State)
|
$793,000 | $132,000 | 62% | 4 | $28,600 |
| 21 |
Massachusetts Maritime Academy (In-State)
|
$783,000 | $92,200 | 76% | 4 | $30,700 |
| 22 (tie) |
Georgia Institute of Technology-Main Campus (Out-of-State)
|
$777,000 | $180,000 | 86% | 5 | $33,500 |
| 22 (tie) |
Worcester Polytechnic Institute (Private)
|
$777,000 | $242,000 | 86% | 4 | $44,400 |
| 24 |
Kettering University (Private)
|
$766,000 | $215,000 | 53% | 5 | $44,200 |
| 25 |
Harvard University (Private)
|
$760,000 | $254,000 | 97% | 4 | $27,400 |
Interestingly, Money narrowed down the list to only public schools and excluded the service academies and came up with a 25 that looks like this:
| College | 20-Year ROI With Financial Aid | 20-Year ROI With Sticker Price | Graduation Rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| SUNY Maritime College | $1,030,000 | $1,003,000 | 57% |
| Colorado School of Mines | $949,000 | $909,000 | 77% |
| Georgia Institute of Technology | $904,000 | $856,000 | 86% |
| The California Maritime Academy | $866,000 | $837,000 | 62% |
| University of California-Berkeley | $833,000 | $759,000 | 92% |
| Massachusetts Maritime Academy | $825,000 | $783,000 | 76% |
| Missouri University of Science and Technology | $789,000 | $753,000 | 64% |
| New Jersey Institute of Technology | $767,000 | $704,000 | 61% |
| Maine Maritime Academy | $748,000 | $718,000 | 62% |
| Virginia Military Institute | $736,000 | $680,000 | 78% |
| California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo | $722,000 | $699,000 | 80% |
| New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology | $719,000 | $692,000 | 49% |
| University of California-San Diego | $711,000 | $642,000 | 87% |
| University of Virginia | $709,000 | $633,000 | 94% |
| Michigan Technological University | $696,000 | $649,000 | 67% |
| University of Washington-Bothell | $663,000 | $609,000 | 67% |
| Montana Tech | $658,000 | $634,000 | 46% |
| South Dakota School of Mines and Technology | $650,000 | $635,000 | 48% |
| University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign | $636,000 | $585,000 | 85% |
| University of California-Los Angeles | $634,000 | $556,000 | 91% |
| San Jose State University | $632,000 | $597,000 | 62% |
| Virginia Tech | $629,000 | $597,000 | 84% |
| University of Michigan-Ann Arbor | $627,000 | $559,000 | 91% |
| SUNY at Binghamton | $622,000 | $590,000 | 83% |
| University of Maryland-College Park | $614,000 | $577,000 | 86% |
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