10 Colleges That Are Worth The Money

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Payscale ranked the colleges on a 20-year net Return On Investment, defined as "the total earnings, minus the cost of the degree, minus the average earnings over the person with only a high school education," according to 538, where we first saw this report.

Here are PayScale's 10 schools with the best ROI:

Harvey Mudd College — Cost: $229,500, ROI: $980,900
California Institute of Technology — Cost: $220,400, ROI: $837,600
Massachusetts Institute of Technology — Cost: $223,400, ROI: $831,1000
Stanford University — Cost: $236,300, ROI: $789,500
Colorado School of Mines (in state) — Cost: $114,200, ROI: $783,400
Georgia Institute of Technology (in state) — Cost: $92,250, ROI: $755,600
Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology — Cost: $217,400, ROI: $736,200
Polytechnic Institute of New York University — Cost: $223,900, ROI: $724,500
Stevens Institute of Technology — Cost: $250,900, ROI: $722,400
Colorado School of Mines (out of state) — Cost: $178,500, ROI: $719,000


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/colleges-best-return-on-investment-2014-3

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1. In some ways this statistic is meaningless

If you get into one of these schools but instead elect to go to a state school and your parents are wealthy, your individual ROI will be much higher. Chances are you will receive significant merit aid from a state school (at a minimum one half of the tuition and going all the way up to a full ride). The schools also reflect a concentration of technical majors which are in general higher paying. If you are sitting about $100K family income I think a flagship state school would be a better choice than the privates listed here especially if you live in the midwest (I cannot believe that Rose Hulman would be a better investment than Iowa State for example). I kicked this around alot with my daughter before we decided to just go after one school - Iowa State. She has merit aid for about half her tuition right now with some chance for additional scholarships.