Best Value / By Major

Best Value Colleges for Engineering-Related Fields

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

28

Schools Ranked

$59,842

Avg. Earnings

<1 yr

Best Payback

1,469

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	$92,632	<1 yr
2	Purdue University-Main Campus West Lafayette, IN · Public	$8,450	$66,653	1.1 yrs
3	University of Arizona Tucson, AZ · Public	$13,644	$73,215	1.4 yrs
4	Missouri University of Science and Technology Rolla, MO · Public	$11,656	$67,101	1.5 yrs
5	Arizona State University Campus Immersion Tempe, AZ · Public	$15,561	$65,797	2 yrs
6	Eastern Kentucky University Richmond, KY · Public	$14,287	$63,749	2 yrs
7	University of Wisconsin-Stout Menomonie, WI · Public	$15,247	$63,302	2.2 yrs
8	Morehead State University Morehead, KY · Public	$13,087	$57,318	2.3 yrs
9	Miami University-Oxford Oxford, OH · Public	$23,513	$74,576	2.4 yrs
10	Middle Tennessee State University Murfreesboro, TN · Public	$14,498	$58,943	2.4 yrs
11	Michigan State University East Lansing, MI · Public	$20,557	$67,429	2.5 yrs
12	Iowa State University Ames, IA · Public	$14,641	$58,040	2.5 yrs
13	Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University Blacksburg, VA · Public	$18,372	$63,005	2.6 yrs
14	Clemson University Clemson, SC · Public	$20,797	$66,206	2.7 yrs
15	University of South Carolina-Upstate Spartanburg, SC · Public	$16,984	$59,124	2.8 yrs
16	Stevens Institute of Technology Hoboken, NJ · Private	$28,483	$74,953	2.9 yrs
17	University of the Pacific Stockton, CA · Private	$25,543	$69,338	3 yrs
18	California State University-Chico Chico, CA · Public	$16,738	$57,318	3 yrs
19	Illinois Institute of Technology Chicago, IL · Private	$22,339	$63,005	3.2 yrs
20	The University of Tennessee-Chattanooga Chattanooga, TN · Public	$15,283	$52,941	3.4 yrs
21	Western Michigan University Kalamazoo, MI · Public	$20,840	$59,576	3.4 yrs
22	Eastern Michigan University Ypsilanti, MI · Public	$14,547	$51,857	3.5 yrs
23	Clarkson University Potsdam, NY · Private	$27,131	$63,749	3.8 yrs
24	Missouri State University-Springfield Springfield, MO · Public	$15,950	$50,856	4 yrs
25	Rochester Institute of Technology Rochester, NY · Private	$31,935	$65,131	4.2 yrs
26	Purdue University Northwest Hammond, IN · Public	$12,829	$42,682	6.7 yrs
27	Arkansas State University Jonesboro, AR · Public	$14,698	$39,369	13.5 yrs
28	New York University New York, NY · Private	$31,355	$38,289	38.1 yrs

Top Earners in Engineering-Related Fields

See schools ranked by earnings alone, without considering cost.

Best Value Rankings

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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.