Private Schools: Return on Investment

• Special Report: Best B-Schools vs. the Recession
• Slide Show: Inside Look at Top 50 Schools
• Interactive Table: The Complete Ranking
• Interactive Table: Public School ROI

To determine which business programs give students the biggest return on their tuition dollar, we compared annual tuition costs at each of the programs that participated in our recent undergraduate b-school ranking with median starting salaries for graduates. Overall, public universities with their lower tuition did far better than elite private schools, averaging $5.34 in pay for every tuition dollar spent, compared to $1.46 for the privates. Brigham Young—with tuition costs that are a sliver of what most elite schools charge—topped the list of privates, generating $11.56 in salary for every dollar spent. Below is our ROI ranking for the 48 private schools in the ranking.