Go To Businessweek.com

What's Your College Degree Worth?

Like many difficult questions, the answer to that one is: It depends. Yes, it depends on where you went to school, but it also depends on what you studied, how long it took you to graduate, and whether you got financial aid, among many other factors. To answer that question, PayScale dug into its trove of 1.4 million pay reports from individuals using its online pay-comparison tools and calculated the return on investment, or ROI, for nearly 700 U.S. schools. The table below is divided into four sections. The first is 30-year net ROI, both for students who did, and did not, receive financial aid grants. This figure takes into consideration several factors, including how long it takes most students to graduate and the likelihood of not graduating at each institution. The next section presents the same information, but for graduates only. The third and fourth sections are identical to the first and second, except the data is for a 15-year time frame. To the right of every ROI dollar amount is the school's rank on that metric. State schools are presented twice, with ROI figures calculated using in-state and out-of-state tuition. For more information on the methodology, see the footnote below.

..more
Close

The ranking was prepared by PayScale and is based on self-reported pay data obtained through its online pay comparison tools. On average, pay reports from about 1,000 alumni from each school were used in the return on investment calculations. All pay reports are for full-time employees without advanced degrees in U.S.-based jobs. For 30-Year and 15-Year Net ROI, PayScale calculated the average earnings of a graduate (in excess of those of a high school graduate) in 2010 dollars after deducting the cost of the degree and adjusting for the school's graduation rate. The cost of the degree includes tuition and fees, room and board, books, and supplies for a 2010 graduate who obtains a degree in the average time it takes to graduate at each institution. (It is calculated twice: without local, state, federal, and institutional grant aid and with the average amount of grant aid received by those who get it.) The National ROI Rank on the far left is based on 30-Year Net ROI (With Grants). In addition to Net ROI, PayScale calculated Net ROI for Graduates Only, a figure that does not take into consideration the school's graduation rate. In the table, every public school is listed twice, with ROI calculated using in-state tuition and out-of-state tuition. All dollar amounts are rounded. Ranks are based on unrounded figures.

Data: PayScale, Integrated Postsecondary Educational Data System