Best Value Colleges for Engineering Science
Schools ranked by payback period — how quickly you recoup your investment through higher earnings.
10
Schools Ranked
$62,500
Avg. Earnings
1 yrs
Best Payback
160
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 | Major Earnings | Payback |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Vanderbilt University Nashville, TN · Private | $66,169 | 1 yrs |
| 2 | Dartmouth College Hanover, NH · Private | $78,343 | 1.1 yrs |
| 3 | Trinity University San Antonio, TX · Private | $60,320 | 2.7 yrs |
| 4 | Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus University Park, PA · Public | $73,215 | 2.8 yrs |
| 5 | California State University-Bakersfield Bakersfield, CA · Public | $48,041 | 2.8 yrs |
| 6 | Rutgers University-New Brunswick New Brunswick, NJ · Public | $63,005 | 3 yrs |
| 7 | University of New Mexico-Main Campus Albuquerque, NM · Public | $56,415 | 3.1 yrs |
| 8 | Wartburg College Waverly, IA · Private | $58,221 | 3.9 yrs |
| 9 | The College of New Jersey Ewing, NJ · Public | $58,866 | 4.3 yrs |
| 10 | Hofstra University Hempstead, NY · Private | $62,409 | 4.9 yrs |
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.