Best Value Colleges for Environmental Design
Schools ranked by payback period — how quickly you recoup your investment through higher earnings.
10
Schools Ranked
$41,958
Avg. Earnings
1.8 yrs
Best Payback
231
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 | Cornell University Ithaca, NY · Private | $57,318 | 1.8 yrs |
| 2 | Florida Atlantic University Boca Raton, FL · Public | $55,964 | 2.4 yrs |
| 3 | University of Hawaii at Manoa Honolulu, HI · Public | $49,019 | 4.3 yrs |
| 4 | University of Colorado Boulder Boulder, CO · Public | $39,663 | 15.6 yrs |
| 5 | Montana State University Bozeman, MT · Public | $38,289 | 24.3 yrs |
| 6 | Utah State University Logan, UT · Public | $36,848 | 29.3 yrs |
| 7 | Bowling Green State University-Main Campus Bowling Green, OH · Public | $35,416 | 178.9 yrs |
| 8 | University of Massachusetts-Amherst Amherst, MA · Public | $30,366 | N/A |
| 9 | University at Buffalo Buffalo, NY · Public | $32,925 | N/A |
| 10 | University of Minnesota-Twin Cities Minneapolis, MN · Public | $32,382 | N/A |
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.