Best Value / By Major

Best Value Colleges for Chemical Engineering

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

50

Schools Ranked

$66,251

Avg. Earnings

<1 yr

Best Payback

11,315

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	Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge, MA · Private	$2,834	$80,964	<1 yr
2	Rice University Houston, TX · Private	$6,152	$83,915	<1 yr
3	Northwestern University Evanston, IL · Private	$5,849	$79,688	<1 yr
4	Stanford University Stanford, CA · Private	$7,081	$91,744	<1 yr
5	Vanderbilt University Nashville, TN · Private	$7,694	$73,446	<1 yr
6	Cornell University Ithaca, NY · Private	$9,785	$83,351	<1 yr
7	Columbia University in the City of New York New York, NY · Private	$8,106	$75,204	<1 yr
8	University of Florida Gainesville, FL · Public	$8,394	$73,145	<1 yr
9	University of Michigan-Ann Arbor Ann Arbor, MI · Public	$10,481	$75,104	1 yrs
10	Purdue University-Main Campus West Lafayette, IN · Public	$8,450	$69,897	1 yrs
11	University of Wisconsin-Madison Madison, WI · Public	$10,364	$73,378	1.1 yrs
12	University of California-Berkeley Berkeley, CA · Public	$13,423	$80,718	1.2 yrs
13	University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, PA · Private	$12,020	$74,576	1.2 yrs
14	Washington University in St Louis St. Louis, MO · Private	$8,149	$61,516	1.2 yrs
15	University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Champaign, IL · Public	$11,505	$74,279	1.2 yrs
16	Brigham Young University Provo, UT · Private	$12,676	$76,460	1.2 yrs
17	University of Connecticut-Avery Point Groton, CT · Public	$9,414	$66,989	1.2 yrs
18	The University of Texas at Austin Austin, TX · Public	$16,134	$82,830	1.3 yrs
19	University of Washington-Seattle Campus Seattle, WA · Public	$8,393	$60,771	1.3 yrs
20	Michigan Technological University Houghton, MI · Public	$11,794	$70,536	1.3 yrs
21	Wayne State University Detroit, MI · Public	$13,612	$76,460	1.3 yrs
22	University of Connecticut-Waterbury Campus Waterbury, CT · Public	$10,112	$66,989	1.3 yrs
23	University of Connecticut-Hartford Campus Hartford, CT · Public	$10,515	$66,989	1.3 yrs
24	University of Notre Dame Notre Dame, IN · Private	$14,020	$76,460	1.4 yrs
25	Missouri University of Science and Technology Rolla, MO · Public	$11,656	$69,170	1.4 yrs
26	Florida State University Tallahassee, FL · Public	$11,506	$68,305	1.4 yrs
27	Youngstown State University Youngstown, OH · Public	$13,754	$75,204	1.4 yrs
28	Texas A&M University-College Station College Station, TX · Public	$17,525	$80,669	1.5 yrs
29	Lamar University Beaumont, TX · Public	$13,580	$71,015	1.5 yrs
30	Ohio State University-Main Campus Columbus, OH · Public	$13,273	$69,561	1.5 yrs
31	University of Arkansas Fayetteville, AR · Public	$16,256	$78,343	1.5 yrs
32	University of Minnesota-Twin Cities Minneapolis, MN · Public	$12,911	$70,176	1.5 yrs
33	Lafayette College Easton, PA · Private	$13,393	$68,379	1.6 yrs
34	Georgia Institute of Technology-Main Campus Atlanta, GA · Public	$15,415	$74,307	1.6 yrs
35	University of Louisville Louisville, KY · Public	$17,380	$77,715	1.6 yrs
36	Oklahoma State University-Main Campus Stillwater, OK · Public	$14,127	$70,176	1.6 yrs
37	West Virginia University Institute of Technology Beckley, WV · Public	$10,775	$62,012	1.6 yrs
38	University of Maine Orono, ME · Public	$14,886	$72,509	1.6 yrs
39	University of South Florida Tampa, FL · Public	$9,669	$58,898	1.6 yrs
40	University of Virginia-Main Campus Charlottesville, VA · Public	$16,019	$72,605	1.7 yrs
41	North Carolina State University at Raleigh Raleigh, NC · Public	$14,424	$69,757	1.7 yrs
42	University of Idaho Moscow, ID · Public	$13,998	$68,499	1.7 yrs
43	University of California-Los Angeles Los Angeles, CA · Public	$12,644	$63,005	1.8 yrs
44	Texas Tech University Lubbock, TX · Public	$15,248	$69,338	1.8 yrs
45	University of Utah Salt Lake City, UT · Public	$13,842	$65,894	1.8 yrs
46	Iowa State University Ames, IA · Public	$14,641	$67,156	1.8 yrs
47	Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College Baton Rouge, LA · Public	$19,623	$76,460	1.9 yrs
48	North Carolina A & T State University Greensboro, NC · Public	$12,647	$61,064	1.9 yrs
49	Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University Blacksburg, VA · Public	$18,372	$73,272	1.9 yrs
50	California State Polytechnic University-Pomona Pomona, CA · Public	$15,958	$68,305	1.9 yrs

Top Earners in Chemical Engineering

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.