Best Value / By Major

Best Value Colleges for Engineering, Other

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

Schools Ranked

$62,778

Avg. Earnings

1.2 yrs

Best Payback

716

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	Stanford University Stanford, CA · Private	$7,081	$57,995	1.2 yrs
2	Massachusetts Maritime Academy Buzzards Bay, MA · Public	$12,099	$73,035	1.3 yrs
3	Ohio State University-Main Campus Columbus, OH · Public	$13,273	$75,130	1.3 yrs
4	Purdue University-Main Campus West Lafayette, IN · Public	$8,450	$58,673	1.4 yrs
5	Indiana University-Indianapolis Indianapolis, IN · Public	$13,306	$68,379	1.6 yrs
6	University of Maryland-College Park College Park, MD · Public	$17,360	$69,897	2 yrs
7	California State University-Chico Chico, CA · Public	$16,738	$66,355	2.1 yrs
8	Colorado State University Pueblo Pueblo, CO · Public	$13,811	$61,303	2.1 yrs
9	Auburn University Auburn, AL · Public	$23,468	$74,157	2.4 yrs
10	Oregon Institute of Technology Klamath Falls, OR · Public	$16,695	$59,986	2.7 yrs
11	Oregon State University-Cascades Campus Bend, OR · Public	$20,523	$64,493	2.8 yrs
12	Oregon State University Corvallis, OR · Public	$21,716	$64,493	2.9 yrs
13	Worcester Polytechnic Institute Worcester, MA · Private	$33,999	$79,688	3 yrs
14	University of California-San Diego La Jolla, CA · Public	$14,310	$52,107	3.3 yrs
15	Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus University Park, PA · Public	$27,137	$66,056	3.5 yrs
16	Michigan State University East Lansing, MI · Public	$20,557	$57,318	3.7 yrs
17	University of Silicon Valley San Jose, CA · For-Profit	$26,985	$52,289	6.2 yrs
18	Western Michigan University Kalamazoo, MI · Public	$20,840	$44,170	9.1 yrs
19	Johnson & Wales University-Providence Providence, RI · Private	$28,090	$47,260	9.2 yrs

Top Earners in Engineering, Other

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.