Money Moves

Colleges with the best bang for your buck

9.  Carnegie Mellon University

best bang for buck colleges 09 Carnegie Mellon
9
  • 20-year return on investment: $908,000
  • Total 4-year cost: $243,000

Alumni from the Pittsburgh-based private research university excel in STEM fields. A majority of its graduates earned degrees in computer science and engineering last year.

First published April 7, 2016: 7:15 AM ET
Source: PayScale
Based on survey data, PayScale calculated the total median pay for a school's undergraduate alumnus over a 20-year career and compared it to that of a high school graduate who worked for 24 years. It took the difference in pay and subtracted the cost of attending school to determine the return on investment in 2015 dollars. The cost of attendance included tuition, room and board, and books -- and adjusted to account for the average grant awarded to students. Alumni who went on to graduate school were excluded from the data.

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