Best Value / By Major

Best Value Colleges for Community Organization and Advocacy

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

Schools Ranked

$35,301

Avg. Earnings

<1 yr

Best Payback

2,118

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	Northwestern University Evanston, IL · Private	$5,849	$64,990	<1 yr
2	Central Michigan University Mount Pleasant, MI · Public	$15,720	$39,369	14.4 yrs
3	Aquinas College Grand Rapids, MI · Private	$15,306	$37,568	23.8 yrs
4	New York University New York, NY · Private	$31,355	$39,369	28.7 yrs
5	Metropolitan College of New York New York, NY · Private	$26,435	$35,416	254.2 yrs
6	University of California-Santa Cruz Santa Cruz, CA · Public	$15,567	$28,236	N/A
7	Springfield College Springfield, MA · Private	$23,561	$34,586	N/A
8	Portland State University Portland, OR · Public	$12,964	$31,423	N/A
9	California State University-Dominguez Hills Carson, CA · Public	$6,333	$33,993	N/A
10	Grand Canyon University Phoenix, AZ · For-Profit	$20,787	$30,828	N/A
11	University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh Oshkosh, WI · Public	$14,157	$30,409	N/A
12	Black Hills State University Spearfish, SD · Public	$16,947	$33,138	N/A
13	Middle Georgia State University Macon, GA · Public	$11,530	$28,598	N/A
14	Alverno College Milwaukee, WI · Private	$18,834	$30,228	N/A
15	Nazareth University Rochester, NY · Private	$30,646	$28,019	N/A

Top Earners in Community Organization and Advocacy

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.