Best-value Colleges | Payscale College ROI Report (2024)

Historically, graduating college students were able to rapidly pay off student loan debt by getting a higher paying job than a high school education alone would help them to obtain.

But is college still a good deal today? College has grown increasingly expensive, with the average college student now graduating with tens of thousands of dollars in student loan debt. Meanwhile, high paying jobs for college graduates are getting scarcer, with the result being that student loan debt can burden graduates for decades.

As such, prospective college students, parents, and policymakers are all trying to better understand the value of a college education in monetary terms, particularly as it applies to opportunities in the job market. Analysis of alumni salary data post-graduation gives students assurance that they are making good financial decisions when they choose their colleges.

This is what Payscale’s College ROI Report provides.

Unfortunately, it can be difficult to calculate the true cost of college. The stated "sticker price” that colleges report to the Department of Education often does not represent what students ultimately end up paying to graduate from college. This is because many variables impact the cost calculation for college. For example, tuition is more expensive for out-of-state students than in-state students. Also, financial aid assistance is highly dependent on family income and academic success in high school.

Colleges are required to provide access to net price calculators so that students can estimate the true cost to attend that college, but not all students are aware these calculators exist and it can be unwieldy to try and compare calculations across many different prospective colleges.

Payscale’s College ROI Report bridges the gap by making information about the true costs of college on average accessible to prospective students in a ranked and filterable list, which can help with decision-making related to the pursuit of higher education.

These days, the cost of college is untenable to many prospective students due to rising tuition fees.

According to the U.S. Department of Education, the total student loan debt exceeded $1.7 trillion for 43 million borrowers in 2023. While the total decreased slightly in recent years during the Biden Administration, student loan debt remains a national crisis.

In addition, according to a report from the Strada Institute for the Future of Work and the Burning Glass Institute, 52 percent of recent college graduates are underemployed — meaning that they are working jobs that don’t require a four-year college degree. That means they are also less likely to earn an income high enough to pay off student loan debt.

No matter how you look at it, college is an investment — both of time and money. While the benefits of going to college are greater than the monetary gain, the financial incentive of landing a higher paying job continues to be the primary driver for why people attend college and pursue a bachelor’s degree.

When it comes to earnings, the reality is that some schools and some majors do a better job of setting their alumni up for success in the job market. Whether you’re looking for the best-value engineering schools or the best-value business schools, research data from Payscale’s College ROI Report can help you evaluate the expected gains against the cost of attendance.

While the top 10 colleges by ROI are shown in the list above, Payscale’s list of best-value colleges in the College ROI Report can be ranked by state, major, school type, or target job. By filtering the lists, you can evaluate which colleges are providing the best return on investment for their alumni based on earnings over a 20-year career minus total tuition costs, while accounting for financial aid and school type. You can also adjust the list for on-campus vs. off-campus, financial aid vs. no financial aid, and ROI type as a percentage vs. total savings.

Payscale’s College ROI Report uses data from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) produced by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) to calculate the investment needed for college. Data from Payscale’s online salary survey is used to calculate the median pay of alumni over 20 years compared to non-college graduates. Four categories of schools are compared for ROI rankings: Public (In-State), Public (Out-of-State), Service Academy, and Private not-for-profit.

Learn more about the methodology for the College ROI Report as well as frequently asked questions (FAQ). If you are a college looking to advertise your ranking position in Payscale’s College ROI Report, you can find the embed code for your digital badge here.