Best Value / By Major

Best Value Colleges for Ethnic, Cultural Minority, Gender, and Group Studies

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

50

Schools Ranked

$29,452

Avg. Earnings

2.9 yrs

Best Payback

3,620

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	Columbia University in the City of New York New York, NY · Private	$8,106	$46,087	2.9 yrs
2	Brown University Providence, RI · Private	$10,219	$41,565	6.2 yrs
3	University of California-Berkeley Berkeley, CA · Public	$13,423	$40,458	9.8 yrs
4	Georgetown University Washington, DC · Private	$12,505	$39,369	11.4 yrs
5	University of Massachusetts-Boston Boston, MA · Public	$17,689	$39,009	17.6 yrs
6	University of Colorado Boulder Boulder, CO · Public	$18,204	$38,289	22.1 yrs
7	Sonoma State University Rohnert Park, CA · Public	$17,985	$37,208	32.6 yrs
8	University of Rhode Island Kingston, RI · Public	$18,131	$36,668	43.5 yrs
9	San Francisco State University San Francisco, CA · Public	$16,065	$35,653	98.4 yrs
10	Dartmouth College Hanover, NH · Private	$12,172	$35,420	115.9 yrs
11	Stony Brook University Stony Brook, NY · Public	$19,344	$35,416	186 yrs
12	Yale University New Haven, CT · Private	$2,815	$35,060	187.7 yrs
13	Spelman College Atlanta, GA · Private	$41,579	$35,600	277.2 yrs
14	Florida International University Miami, FL · Public	$7,292	$35,060	486.1 yrs
15	CUNY City College New York, NY · Public	$7,521	$35,060	501.4 yrs
16	Rhode Island College Providence, RI · Public	$12,509	$35,060	833.9 yrs
17	University of Notre Dame Notre Dame, IN · Private	$14,020	$35,060	934.7 yrs
18	Brandeis University Waltham, MA · Private	$24,183	$31,423	N/A
19	Wheaton College (Massachusetts) Norton, MA · Private	$22,415	$32,925	N/A
20	American University Washington, DC · Private	$27,374	$29,685	N/A
21	University of Michigan-Ann Arbor Ann Arbor, MI · Public	$10,481	$24,421	N/A
22	Mount Holyoke College South Hadley, MA · Private	$16,248	$30,409	N/A
23	University of New Hampshire-Main Campus Durham, NH · Public	$20,896	$26,739	N/A
24	Northwestern University Evanston, IL · Private	$5,849	$29,685	N/A
25	University of California-Santa Barbara Santa Barbara, CA · Public	$14,583	$33,281	N/A
26	University of California-Davis Davis, CA · Public	$14,193	$32,284	N/A
27	University of Virginia-Main Campus Charlottesville, VA · Public	$16,019	$30,771	N/A
28	University of Washington-Seattle Campus Seattle, WA · Public	$8,393	$31,423	N/A
29	University of Washington-Bothell Campus Bothell, WA · Public	$9,439	$31,423	N/A
30	University of Washington-Tacoma Campus Tacoma, WA · Public	$8,147	$31,423	N/A
31	The University of Texas at Austin Austin, TX · Public	$16,134	$33,459	N/A
32	CUNY Lehman College Bronx, NY · Public	$8,084	$25,194	N/A
33	Washington State University Pullman, WA · Public	$14,233	$16,236	N/A
34	University of California-Riverside Riverside, CA · Public	$11,126	$26,121	N/A
35	California State University-Sacramento Sacramento, CA · Public	$12,602	$32,569	N/A
36	CUNY Brooklyn College Brooklyn, NY · Public	$7,219	$33,138	N/A
37	University of California-Santa Cruz Santa Cruz, CA · Public	$15,567	$28,598	N/A
38	San Diego State University San Diego, CA · Public	$14,698	$26,715	N/A
39	Rutgers University-Camden Camden, NJ · Public	$15,952	$20,140	N/A
40	Rutgers University-New Brunswick New Brunswick, NJ · Public	$20,927	$20,140	N/A
41	Rutgers University-Newark Newark, NJ · Public	$18,648	$20,140	N/A
42	University of California-Los Angeles Los Angeles, CA · Public	$12,644	$28,682	N/A
43	University of North Carolina at Charlotte Charlotte, NC · Public	$16,938	$31,581	N/A
44	University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Chapel Hill, NC · Public	$11,619	$26,585	N/A
45	University of Oregon Eugene, OR · Public	$16,014	$24,808	N/A
46	University of California-San Diego La Jolla, CA · Public	$14,310	$24,035	N/A
47	Grand Valley State University Allendale, MI · Public	$15,277	$28,381	N/A
48	University of Florida Gainesville, FL · Public	$8,394	$23,803	N/A
49	CUNY Hunter College New York, NY · Public	$6,908	$24,035	N/A
50	Arizona State University Campus Immersion Tempe, AZ · Public	$15,561	$29,413	N/A

Top Earners in Ethnic, Cultural Minority, Gender, and Group Studies

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.