Return On Investment
Big name schools like Wharton might churn out high-paid grads, but the business program with the biggest bang for the buck are usually those with the lowest pricetag.
To determine which undergraduate business programs give students the biggest return on their tuition dollar, we compared annual tuition costs with median salaries for grads. Overall, public universities with their lower tuitions did far better than elite private schools, averaging $5.94 in pay for every tuition dollar spent, compared to $1.62 for the privates. The University of Florida, with annual tuition of $3,372 and a median starting salary of $44,000, came out on top among the publics, while Brigham Young—with tuition costs a tenth of those that some elite colleges charge—topped the list of privates. Cornell offers another bargain; while largely a private institution, the business program is in a state-sponsored portion of the school, with lower tuition than many privates.
Public Schools
| Return on Tuition Rank | Overall BW Rank | School | Annual Cost | Median Starting Salary | Salary per Tuition Dollar |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 46 | Florida (Warrington) Gainesville |
$3,372 | $44,000 | $13.05 |
| 2 | 12 | North Carolina (Kenan-Flagler) Chapel Hill |
$5,340 | $53,500 | $10.02 |
| 3 | 40 | Binghamton Binghamton, N.Y. |
$6,012 | $57,000 | $9.48 |
| 4 | 44 | Georgia (Terry) Athens |
$5,622 | $44,000 | $7.83 |
| 5 | 33 | U. of Washington Seattle |
$6,385 | $47,500 | $7.44 |
| 6 | 11 | UC-Berkeley (Haas) Berkeley, Calif. |
$8,384 | $57,000 | $6.80 |
| 7 | 2 | Virginia (McIntire) Charlottesville |
$8,690 | $58,000 | $6.67 |
| 8 | 37 | Wisconsin (Madison) |
$7,460 | $48,000 | $6.43 |
| 9 | 31 | Texas A & M (Mays) College Station |
$7,266 | $46,400 | $6.39 |
| 10 | 43 | Maryland (Smith) College Park |
$7,968 | $50,360 | $6.32 |
| 11 | 16 | Indiana (Kelley) Bloomington |
$7,958 | $50,000 | $6.28 |
| 12 | 29 | William & Mary (Mason) Williamsburg, Va. |
$9,164 | $52,224 | $5.70 |
| 13 | 10 | Texas (McCombs) Austin |
$8,908 | $49,500 | $5.56 |
| 14 | 50 | Rutgers New Brunswick, N.J. |
$10,949 | $54,000 | $4.93 |
| 15 | 6 | Michigan (Ross) Ann Arbor |
$12,585 | $60,000 | $4.77 |
| 16 | 39 | Michigan State (Broad) East Lansing |
$10,090 | $47,750 | $4.73 |
| 17 | 48 | Minnesota (Carlson) Minneapolis |
$10,498 | $48,532 | $4.62 |
| 18 | 18 | Illinois Urbana-Champaign |
$12,232 | $53,000 | $4.33 |
| 19 | 24 | Miami U. (Farmer) Oxford, Ohio |
$11,875 | $45,766 | $3.85 |
| 20 | 38 | Penn State (Smeal) University Park |
$14,343 | $49,000 | $3.42 |
| TOP 50 AVERAGE | $8,755 | $50,777 | $6.43 |
Private Schools
| Return on Tuition Rank | Overall BW Rank | School | Annual Cost | Median Starting Salary | Salary per Tuition Dollar |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 7 | Brigham Young (Marriott) Provo, Utah |
$3,840 | $48,000 | $12.50 |
| 2 | 4 | Cornell Ithaca, N.Y. |
$19,291 | $55,000 | $2.85 |
| 3 | 32 | Texas Christian (Neeley) Fort Worth |
$24,865 | $50,000 | $2.01 |
| 4 | 36 | Baylor (Hankamer) Waco, Tex. |
$25,340 | $45,000 | $1.78 |
| 5 | 9 | MIT (Sloan) Cambridge, Mass. |
$34,986 | $61,118 | $1.75 |
| 6 | 19 | Georgetown (McDonough) Washington, D.C. |
$35,740 | $60,000 | $1.68 |
| 7 | 1 | Pennsylvania (Wharton) Philadelphia |
$35,916 | $60,000 | $1.67 |
| 8 | 27 | Fordham New York |
$32,720 | $54,221 | $1.66 |
| 9 | 8 | NYU (Stern) New York |
$36,524 | $60,000 | $1.64 |
| 10 | 17 | USC (Marshall) Los Angeles |
$35,810 | $58,000 | $1.62 |
| 11 | 5 | Emory (Goizueta) Atlanta |
$34,336 | $55,000 | $1.60 |
| 12 | 22 | Carnegie Mellon (Tepper) Pittsburgh |
$37,544 | $60,000 | $1.60 |
| 13 | 34 | Northeastern Boston |
$31,899 | $50,716 | $1.59 |
| 14 | 21 | Wake Forest (Calloway) Winston-Salem, N.C. |
$34,330 | $53,500 | $1.56 |
| 15 | 15 | Washington U. (Olin) St. Louis |
$35,524 | $55,000 | $1.55 |
| 16 | 35 | Santa Clara Santa Clara, Calif. |
$33,000 | $51,000 | $1.55 |
| 17 | 25 | Lehigh Bethlehem, Pa. |
$35,610 | $55,000 | $1.54 |
| 18 | 26 | Rensselaer Polytech (Lally) Troy, N.Y. |
$35,885 | $55,000 | $1.53 |
| 19 | 3 | Notre Dame (Mendoza) South Bend, Ind. |
$35,187 | $53,500 | $1.52 |
| 20 | 28 | Babson Babson Park, Mass. |
$34,112 | $51,000 | $1.50 |
| 21 | 23 | SMU (Cox) Dallas |
$33,170 | $48,500 | $1.46 |
| 22 | 30 | Bentley Waltham, Mass. |
$32,896 | $47,500 | $1.44 |
| 23 | 47 | U. San Diego San Diego, Calif. |
$32,564 | $47,000 | $1.44 |
| 24 | 13 | Villanova Villanova, Pa. |
$34,900 | $50,000 | $1.43 |
| 25 | 41 | Case Western (Weatherhead) Cleveland, Ohio |
$33,538 | $47,500 | $1.42 |
| 26 | 42 | Boston U. Boston |
$34,930 | $49,147 | $1.41 |
| 27 | 14 | Boston College (Carroll) Boston |
$35,674 | $50,000 | $1.40 |
| 28 | 20 | Richmond (Robins) Richmond, Va. |
$38,850 | $51,750 | $1.33 |
| 29 | 49 | U. of Miami Coral Gables, Fla. |
$34,720 | $45,000 | $1.30 |
| 30 | 45 | Loyola College (Sellinger) Baltimore |
$42,730 | $42,000 | $0.98 |
| TOP 50 AVERAGE | $32,881 | $52,315 | $1.94 |