You won’t find Evergreen State College on this list.
The Federal government’s decision to throw student loan dollars at any American with a pulse – while simultaneously offering to forgive that debt upon graduation – has driven college enrollment rates to record highs.
But as surging costs have rained the return on invested capital of a liberal arts degree, students who plan on leaving their safe spaces (basements) and venturing out into the working world after graduation might want to prioritize maximizing value.
To that end, Forbes and the Center for College Affordability and Productivity have devised a formula to determine which colleges and universities provide students with the best overall return. And they've broken down their findings by state.
Their formula involves five criteria: The quality of the education (35%, based on Forbes’ Top College Rankings), the dropout risk (15%, as reported by the Intergrad Postsecondary Education Data System), the graduation success (15%, also IPEDS), post graduate earnings (25% mid-career, based on data from PayScale and the DOE College Scoreboard), and a measure of the school brand’s value-add as calculated by the Brookings Institution. The Brookings data measure the difference between actual alumni outcomes (like salaries) and the outcomes one would expect given a student’s characteristics and the type of degree.
Here's a list of the schools included in the graphic:
Duke University, Durham NC ($47,243)
Yale University, New Haven CT ($45,800)
Rice University, Houston TX ($40,566)
Cornell University, Ithaca NY ($47,286)
Dartmouth College, Hanover NH ($48,108)
The University of Virginia, Charlottesville VA ($13,208)
Georgetown University, Washington DC ($46,744)
Brown University, Providence RI ($47,434)
Vanderbilt University, Nashville TN ($43,838)
The University of Chicago, Chicago IL ($49,380) 29. Haverford College, Haverford PA ($47,214)
The University of Washington, Seattle WA ($12,394)
The University of Maryland, College Park MD ($9,427)
The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor MI ($13,486)
Emory University, Atlanta GA ($45,008)
The University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame IN ($46,237)
Middlebury College, Middlebury VT ($46,044)
Bowdoin College, Brunswick ME ($46,808)
Washington University, St. Louis MO ($46,467)
Carleton College, Northfield MN ($47,736)
Grinnell College, Grinnell IA ($45,620)
The University of Wisconsin, Madison WI ($10,410)
Kenyon College, Gambier OH ($47,330)
Clemson University, Clemson SC ($13,446)
The University of Delaware, Newark DE ($12,342)
The University of Colorado, Boulder CO ($10,789)
Creighton University, Omaha NE ($35,360)
University of Portland, Portland OR ($40,424)
The University of Oklahoma, Norman OK ($9,495)
Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge LA ($8,750)
New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, Socorro NM ($6,256)
The University of Arizona, Tucson AZ ($10,957)
Auburn University, Auburn AL ($10,200)
The University of Wyoming, Laramie WY ($4,646)
The University of Kansas, Lawrence KS ($10,448) 259. Berea College, Berea KY ($24,270)
Brigham Young University-Idaho, Rexburg, ID ($3,950)
The University of Arkansas, Little Rock AR ($8,210)