Which Colleges Are Worth Your Investment?

[red92s]

Pretty interesting read about selecting colleges based on potential ROI instead of just costs.

A return on investment (ROI) calculation tells you what you get back for what you spend - and it's a great way to compare college costs. With the average cost for college rising, PayScale helps you figure out which school's tuition costs will return the biggest dividends for you after graduation.

Average Cost for College - Compare College Costs & ROI

[jIM_Ohio]

My alma matter made top 100
not bad

[red92s]

My alma matter made top 100
not bad

Same here!

Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) tops the Annualized Return list with 14.2%, because of its $1,111,000 ROI, low education costs ($79,140), and above average graduation rate (77%).

[MonkeyMama]

Good article. I approached college with this ROI methodology. I know few people who did. I know too many people who wasted 4-5 years and then decided to consider ROI a little more closely when attending Grad school (or getting a 2nd degree).

My college is on the list, but lower down because the cost is significantly inflated. How do they come up with cost? (My college education cost $10k and prices haven't even doubled since I graduated). Needless to say, I am happy with my ROI. They quoted about $110k in-state for the college. I can't even get to that much adding room and board, so ???. (I don't include room and board, personally, as a college expense. I'd have to eat and have shelter, regardless if I went to college).

[jIM_Ohio]

Good article. I approached college with this ROI methodology. I know few people who did. I know too many people who wasted 4-5 years and then decided to consider ROI a little more closely when attending Grad school (or getting a 2nd degree).

My college is on the list, but lower down because the cost is significantly inflated. How do they come up with cost? (My college education cost $10k and prices haven't even doubled since I graduated). Needless to say, I am happy with my ROI. They quoted about $110k in-state for the college. I can't even get to that much adding room and board, so ???. (I don't include room and board, personally, as a college expense. I'd have to eat and have shelter, regardless if I went to college).

Not sure of their equation... my college ROI looked like this:

Cost $12k per year, times 5=60k
entry level salary of my first job was 39k+10% bonus per quarter plus 5% bonus per year.
my co-op wages when in school were close to 10-15k per year, so had I not had living expenses while co-oping, my tuition would have been paid for.

[kork13]

Awww.... my alma mater's not listed... And I've probably got the best ROI of any! (perspective-dependent, of course)

The military service academies are a bit of a special case, though -- "free" tuition, but at least 5 years of obligated military service after graduation. For some the work/restrictions/obligations aren't worth it, but I'm sure happy with it!

[am_vanquish]

#314, but I think the results should be expanded to help students choose degrees/majors as well as schools .... mostly because of the variation in pay by major/degree. I bet the results would change pretty significantly if we excluded just MBA programs. I'm willing to bet if you looked at only the engineering majors/degrees, my school would jump into the top 100-150.

Likewise, a degree in sociology from Dartmouth would be pretty expensive to only make $40k for the rest of your life. Perhaps saving some money by getting that Sociology degree from Morehead State University and only making $36k would be better.

Note: I see they're using median salary for graduates of the schools (better than average), but it'd be interesting to also see the deviation of salaries for graduates.

[kenyantykoon]

i think ivy league schools fit the bill because these guys seem to snap up all the best jobs like those on wall street where they pay grads obscene salaries