Is it worth it? Do the math.
A college degree is a six-figure decision, and you deserve more than a reputation ranking to make it. We scored 1,665 colleges on real ROI - what graduates actually earn versus what they paid - using U.S. Department of Education data.
Try MIT, Georgia Tech, or your school
The ROI Breakdown
How the 1,665 schools scored - click any tier to see those schools
Only 18% of schools score 75 or above. Most colleges deliver below-average financial returns relative to their cost.
Top ROI Schools
Highest return on your education investment
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge, MA
Stanford University
Stanford, CA
University of Chicago
Chicago, IL
Rice University
Houston, TX
University of California-Berkeley
Berkeley, CA
Yale University
New Haven, CT
Rankings
Sorted by data, not reputation
Interactive Tools
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See your monthly payment under standard, graduated, and income-driven plans. Compare total interest paid.
Calculate paybackOpportunity Cost Calculator
What if you worked and invested instead? See when (or whether) college outperforms the alternative.
Run the numbersLatest Analysis
Data-driven takes on the decisions that matter
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Rhode Island has ten scored colleges and a price spread that runs from $9,478 a year to $50,507. The school with the second-highest graduate earnings in the state is one most families outside New England have never heard of.
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RankingsBest College Value in Alabama: Top ROI Schools (2026)
Alabama has 26 scored colleges, and the state's two famous names do not finish one and two. Auburn leads. The University of Alabama ranks fourth, behind a Huntsville engineering campus that costs $3,624 a year less and whose graduates earn more.
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NewsletterCollege decisions are better with data.
From CampusROI, when there is something worth acting on.
Every number traces back
to a government data source
No subjective rankings. No reputation scores. No sponsored placements. Just earnings, costs, debt, completion rates, and repayment data from the U.S. Department of Education.