Best Value / By Major

Best Value Colleges for Food Science and Technology

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

Schools Ranked

$43,236

Avg. Earnings

1.8 yrs

Best Payback

1,068

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	University of Wisconsin-Madison Madison, WI · Public	$10,364	$58,673	1.8 yrs
2	Cornell University Ithaca, NY · Private	$9,785	$52,733	2.2 yrs
3	Kansas State University Manhattan, KS · Public	$16,868	$59,045	2.8 yrs
4	Ohio State University-Main Campus Columbus, OH · Public	$13,273	$51,106	3.3 yrs
5	University of Minnesota-Twin Cities Minneapolis, MN · Public	$12,911	$49,370	3.6 yrs
6	California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo San Luis Obispo, CA · Public	$17,340	$52,107	4.1 yrs
7	University of Arkansas Fayetteville, AR · Public	$16,256	$49,683	4.4 yrs
8	University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Champaign, IL · Public	$11,505	$45,127	4.5 yrs
9	University of Massachusetts-Amherst Amherst, MA · Public	$16,667	$49,175	4.7 yrs
10	California State Polytechnic University-Pomona Pomona, CA · Public	$15,958	$48,667	4.7 yrs
11	Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University Blacksburg, VA · Public	$18,372	$47,846	5.7 yrs
12	Texas A&M University-College Station College Station, TX · Public	$17,525	$47,260	5.7 yrs
13	Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus University Park, PA · Public	$27,137	$51,690	6.5 yrs
14	Iowa State University Ames, IA · Public	$14,641	$42,682	7.6 yrs
15	University of Georgia Athens, GA · Public	$15,037	$42,682	7.8 yrs
16	Michigan State University East Lansing, MI · Public	$20,557	$45,221	8 yrs
17	University of Nebraska-Lincoln Lincoln, NE · Public	$15,394	$42,682	8 yrs
18	Delaware Valley University Doylestown, PA · Private	$26,766	$48,041	8.2 yrs
19	Washington State University Pullman, WA · Public	$14,233	$39,927	11.6 yrs
20	Oregon State University-Cascades Campus Bend, OR · Public	$20,523	$41,789	12.1 yrs
21	University of California-Davis Davis, CA · Public	$14,193	$39,585	12.4 yrs
22	Oregon State University Corvallis, OR · Public	$21,716	$41,789	12.8 yrs
23	University of Maryland-College Park College Park, MD · Public	$17,360	$39,729	14.7 yrs
24	University of Missouri-Columbia Columbia, MO · Public	$13,715	$38,289	16.7 yrs
25	Appalachian State University Boone, NC · Public	$13,769	$37,568	21.4 yrs
26	California State University-Fresno Fresno, CA · Public	$8,030	$36,130	28.4 yrs
27	Clemson University Clemson, SC · Public	$20,797	$35,988	84.2 yrs
28	The University of Tennessee-Knoxville Knoxville, TN · Public	$22,476	$35,594	151.4 yrs
29	University of Florida Gainesville, FL · Public	$8,394	$23,456	N/A
30	University of Maine Orono, ME · Public	$14,886	$25,194	N/A
31	Mississippi State University Mississippi State, MS · Public	$18,449	$21,508	N/A

Top Earners in Food Science and Technology

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.