Best Value / By Major

Best Value Colleges for Astronomy and Astrophysics

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

5

Schools Ranked

$35,354

Avg. Earnings

3.9 yrs

Best Payback

86

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	The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art New York, NY · Private	$8,576	$43,798	3.9 yrs
2	University of California-Berkeley Berkeley, CA · Public	$13,423	$36,848	29.1 yrs
3	The University of Texas at Austin Austin, TX · Public	$16,134	$36,848	34.9 yrs
4	University of Colorado Boulder Boulder, CO · Public	$18,204	$32,925	N/A
5	University of Wisconsin-Madison Madison, WI · Public	$10,364	$26,353	N/A

Top Earners in Astronomy and Astrophysics

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.