Best Value / By Major

Best Value Colleges for Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology

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

Schools Ranked

$34,518

Avg. Earnings

6.5 yrs

Best Payback

312

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	SUNY Maritime College Throggs Neck, NY · Public	$19,992	$47,260	6.5 yrs
2	Florida State University Tallahassee, FL · Public	$11,506	$39,009	11.5 yrs
3	University of Washington-Seattle Campus Seattle, WA · Public	$8,393	$37,748	12.2 yrs
4	University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Champaign, IL · Public	$11,505	$38,289	14 yrs
5	Northern Illinois University Dekalb, IL · Public	$13,778	$38,289	16.8 yrs
6	Texas A&M University-College Station College Station, TX · Public	$17,525	$37,208	31.7 yrs
7	Iowa State University Ames, IA · Public	$14,641	$36,848	31.7 yrs
8	University of Oklahoma-Norman Campus Norman, OK · Public	$21,725	$36,134	76.6 yrs
9	Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University Blacksburg, VA · Public	$18,372	$35,416	176.7 yrs
10	Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University-Prescott Prescott, AZ · Private	$33,894	$35,416	325.9 yrs
11	Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University-Daytona Beach Daytona Beach, FL · Private	$35,468	$35,416	341 yrs
12	Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus University Park, PA · Public	$27,137	$34,704	N/A
13	Valparaiso University Valparaiso, IN · Private	$21,256	$30,771	N/A
14	State University of New York at Oswego Oswego, NY · Public	$16,919	$28,598	N/A
15	University of Missouri-Columbia Columbia, MO · Public	$13,715	$33,993	N/A
16	Millersville University of Pennsylvania Millersville, PA · Public	$22,731	$33,138	N/A
17	Central Michigan University Mount Pleasant, MI · Public	$15,720	$32,925	N/A
18	Florida Institute of Technology Melbourne, FL · Private	$30,375	$30,366	N/A
19	University of California-Los Angeles Los Angeles, CA · Public	$12,644	$30,126	N/A
20	Ohio State University-Main Campus Columbus, OH · Public	$13,273	$27,494	N/A
21	Western Illinois University Macomb, IL · Public	$15,794	$25,194	N/A
22	SUNY Brockport Brockport, NY · Public	$17,803	$35,060	N/A

Top Earners in Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology

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.