Best Value / By Major

Best Value Colleges for Applied Mathematics

Schools ranked by payback period — how quickly you recoup your investment through higher earnings.

48

Schools Ranked

$55,872

Avg. Earnings

<1 yr

Best Payback

1,775

Graduates

How we calculate value: Payback = (4 years of net price) / (major earnings - $35k baseline). A 2-year payback means you recoup your investment in 2 years through higher earnings vs. not attending college.

#	School	Net Price/yr	Major Earnings	Payback
1	Harvard University Cambridge, MA · Private	$2,669	$90,856	<1 yr
2	Stanford University Stanford, CA · Private	$7,081	$97,071	<1 yr
3	Columbia University in the City of New York New York, NY · Private	$8,106	$84,653	<1 yr
4	Brown University Providence, RI · Private	$10,219	$88,506	<1 yr
5	University of Washington-Seattle Campus Seattle, WA · Public	$8,393	$68,778	1 yrs
6	University of Connecticut-Avery Point Groton, CT · Public	$9,414	$69,338	1.1 yrs
7	University of Connecticut-Waterbury Campus Waterbury, CT · Public	$10,112	$69,338	1.2 yrs
8	University of Connecticut-Hartford Campus Hartford, CT · Public	$10,515	$69,338	1.2 yrs
9	University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Chapel Hill, NC · Public	$11,619	$67,660	1.4 yrs
10	University of California-Berkeley Berkeley, CA · Public	$13,423	$65,387	1.8 yrs
11	University of Connecticut-Stamford Stamford, CT · Public	$15,152	$69,338	1.8 yrs
12	University of Wisconsin-Stout Menomonie, WI · Public	$15,247	$64,121	2.1 yrs
13	University of California-Santa Barbara Santa Barbara, CA · Public	$14,583	$59,536	2.4 yrs
14	University of Connecticut Storrs, CT · Public	$20,344	$69,338	2.4 yrs
15	Emory University Atlanta, GA · Private	$16,646	$63,005	2.4 yrs
16	University of Colorado Boulder Boulder, CO · Public	$18,204	$61,516	2.7 yrs
17	California State University-Long Beach Long Beach, CA · Public	$11,189	$49,683	3 yrs
18	University of Pittsburgh-Greensburg Greensburg, PA · Public	$15,996	$55,286	3.2 yrs
19	University of Pittsburgh-Bradford Bradford, PA · Public	$17,344	$55,286	3.4 yrs
20	Johns Hopkins University Baltimore, MD · Private	$8,457	$44,971	3.4 yrs
21	University of California-Los Angeles Los Angeles, CA · Public	$12,644	$49,527	3.5 yrs
22	University of South Carolina Aiken Aiken, SC · Public	$13,658	$50,439	3.5 yrs
23	Texas A&M University-College Station College Station, TX · Public	$17,525	$52,524	4 yrs
24	Colorado School of Mines Golden, CO · Public	$24,461	$58,673	4.1 yrs
25	Wentworth Institute of Technology Boston, MA · Private	$33,733	$67,660	4.1 yrs
26	Missouri University of Science and Technology Rolla, MO · Public	$11,656	$46,087	4.2 yrs
27	Ferris State University Big Rapids, MI · Public	$13,230	$47,260	4.3 yrs
28	University of Southern California Los Angeles, CA · Private	$22,826	$55,151	4.5 yrs
29	Arizona State University Campus Immersion Tempe, AZ · Public	$15,561	$48,823	4.5 yrs
30	CUNY City College New York, NY · Public	$7,521	$41,565	4.6 yrs
31	Texas State University San Marcos, TX · Public	$12,996	$46,087	4.7 yrs
32	University of Pittsburgh-Pittsburgh Campus Pittsburgh, PA · Public	$24,139	$55,286	4.8 yrs
33	Robert Morris University Moon Township, PA · Private	$25,646	$55,964	4.9 yrs
34	Georgia Institute of Technology-Main Campus Atlanta, GA · Public	$15,415	$47,260	5 yrs
35	Washington State University Pullman, WA · Public	$14,233	$45,919	5.2 yrs
36	Bryant University Smithfield, RI · Private	$37,946	$63,005	5.4 yrs
37	Auburn University Auburn, AL · Public	$23,468	$52,107	5.5 yrs
38	University of Idaho Moscow, ID · Public	$13,998	$44,933	5.6 yrs
39	University of Kentucky Lexington, KY · Public	$16,708	$46,087	6 yrs
40	Rochester Institute of Technology Rochester, NY · Private	$31,935	$53,775	6.8 yrs
41	The University of Tennessee-Chattanooga Chattanooga, TN · Public	$15,283	$40,737	10.7 yrs
42	Stony Brook University Stony Brook, NY · Public	$19,344	$41,342	12.2 yrs
43	University of California-Davis Davis, CA · Public	$14,193	$39,369	13 yrs
44	Boise State University Boise, ID · Public	$16,204	$39,369	14.8 yrs
45	University of California-San Diego La Jolla, CA · Public	$14,310	$38,289	17.4 yrs
46	Western Washington University Bellingham, WA · Public	$16,819	$36,141	59 yrs
47	San Diego State University San Diego, CA · Public	$14,698	$21,508	N/A
48	CUNY New York City College of Technology Brooklyn, NY · Public	$8,412	$33,993	N/A

Top Earners in Applied Mathematics

See schools ranked by earnings alone, without considering cost.

Best Value Rankings

Explore best value colleges across all majors and categories.

Payback uses earnings by major from the College Scorecard's field-of-study file, last updated June 2026, against net price from the June 2026 release. Scorecard publishes the two separately, so they are different vintages.