The Best Colleges for Making Money

Leg Up on Financial Independence

Still, critics of the elite-school path have a quick retort to all this: Show me the money. In a recent survey by the Higher Education Research Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles, 70 percent of college students said making more money after graduation was a major reason for going to school.

And it's no wonder. Along with that diploma comes an average debt of $22,000 (more than double that of 10 years ago), a financial parasite that eats away at starter paychecks, making it harder for grads to upgrade from their beater cars and ramen-noodle dinners. And in this economy, more families are hard-pressed to help support low-earning kids who've boomeranged back home—making financial independence a more compelling goal than ever.

So who gets there faster? It's probably no surprise that when it comes to paycheck size, private-school alums still outearn their public rivals. Using PayScale.com data, we found that three years out, Ivy and liberal-arts grads pull in an average of $51,500, compared with $48,500 for their state-school counterparts. And looking 15 years out, the public-private gap widens more.

But once you factor in the tuition investment, the picture changes dramatically. In our ranking, no private school even makes the top 18. Dartmouth grads, for example, report the highest average midcareer salary, but their payback ranking falls to 21st on our list after you factor in historical degree costs. (Georgia Tech's payback, by contrast, is twice as high.) Got No. 40 Swarthmore on your wish list? While its grads pull in the same early-career salary as alums from Texas A&M, the Aggies' long-term payback is three times better. University of Georgia President Michael Adams, for one, is not surprised at his school's top ranking. "We are such a bargain," he says.

Shift at Public Schools

Of course, public schools reminded us that it's not just lower degree costs that explain their ranking; they're also attracting brighter students than before. Experts say that with the number of high school grads soaring (last year marked an all-time peak), state schools have been fielding more applications—and becoming increasingly selective. Many public schools we spoke with report a steady rise in their incoming students' SAT scores, GPAs and class rankings. "The competition to get into top schools has trickled down," says Alexandra Robbins, author of The Overachievers: The Secret Lives of Driven Kids. "There's no such thing as a 'safety' school anymore."

And roping in more-promising freshmen is only a start. For most students, it's the course of study they choose that determines how fat their future paychecks can be. Considering a fine arts, religion or drama major? Such liberal arts degrees are "bottom of the list, earning-wise," says Al Lee, director of quantitative analysis at PayScale. According to its research, the best dough comes in fields like engineering and business—strong programs in many of our survey's top-ranked public schools.

That's a fact that doesn't go unnoticed in corporate America, where recruiting pros say the bias toward brand-name schools is on the wane. "Often, there's a waiting list of companies trying to meet our students because they know we're a rich ground for recruitment," says Fred Wood, a vice chancellor at University of California, Davis.

Indeed, according to a study published in the Harvard Business Review, nearly half the top executives at Fortune 100 companies now hail from public schools.

Whether or not they agree with our payback rankings, few private schools deny that their price tags can be daunting, especially in an era when family savings have been so hard-hit. Their financial-aid officers stay busy looking for new ways to help worthy students. In a well-publicized move, many Ivies have started rolling back costs, with Harvard, for one, offering tuition breaks for families earning under $180,000 a year.

But many public schools are staying ahead of the game—by focusing on keeping costs down instead. Elsa Murano, president of No. 2–ranked Texas A&M, bragged to us about how stringently it economizes on administrative costs. In fact, she says, it recently bucked the education-inflation trend by limiting this year's tuition hike to its lowest percentage in 10 years.

It's the kind of thinking that's getting into the heads of more parents, like Kelley Atkinson. Her son, Doug, is still in the 11th grade, but the Eldersburg, Md., mom says they've already decided to up the number of public schools he'll apply to. "There's no way of telling how much money we'll have a year or 18 months from now," she says.

Top 5 Public Schools

1. University of Georgia

Median Salary: 3 Years After Graduation: $44,100

Out-of-State Degree Cost: (Class of 2005): $54,742

Median Salary 15 Years After Graduation: $86,000

Out-of-State Degree Cost (Class of 1993): $14,450

Average Payback: 338%

Comment: At the oldest state-chartered college in the country, the most popular majors are business and marketing, chosen by 20 percent of students.*

2. Texas A&M

Median Salary 3 Years After Graduation: $49,700

Out-of-State Degree Cost (Class of 2005): $47,213

Median Salary 15 Years After Graduation: $96,100

Out-of-State Degree Cost (Class of 1993): $18,297

Average Payback: 315%

Comment: Like at most schools, tuition is going up at Texas A&M this year -- but by the lowest level in a decade.

3. University of Texas, Austin

Median Salary 3 Years After Graduation: $49,700

Out-of-State Degree Cost (Class of 2005): $49,876

Median Salary 15 Years After Graduation: $93,900

Out-of-State Degree Cost (Class of 1993): $18,360 Average Payback: 306%

Comment: A full 82 percent of the freshmen who applied for need-based aid receive some kind of financial package.*

4. Georgia Tech

Median Salary 3 Years After Graduation: $58,300

Out-of-State Degree Cost (Class of 2005): $59,896

Median Salary 15 Years After Graduation: $106,000

Out-of-State Degree Cost (Class of 1993): $24,684

Average Payback: 263%

Comment: According to Payscale's alumni salary survey, six of the top ten highest-paying college degrees involve engineering. Georgia Tech's engineering school ranks among the top five in the country.***

5. University of Washington

Median Salary 3 Years After Graduation: $48,800

Out-of-State Degree Cost (Class of 2005): $62,632

Median Salary 15 Years After Graduation: $85,300

Out-of-State Degree Cost (Class of 1993): $22,935

Average Payback: 225%

Comment: Its 12:1 student-to-faculty ratio rivals that of some of the top

To see the rest of the list, please click here.

Additional reporting by Jason Kephart and Laurence Witherington

Sources:

* College Board

** Peterson's

*** U.S. News & World Report

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