Best Value / By Major

Best Value Colleges for History

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

50

Schools Ranked

$30,243

Avg. Earnings

<1 yr

Best Payback

18,677

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	Harvard University Cambridge, MA · Private	$2,669	$49,644	<1 yr
2	Amherst College Amherst, MA · Private	$7,793	$74,576	<1 yr
3	Yale University New Haven, CT · Private	$2,815	$47,260	<1 yr
4	Williams College Williamstown, MA · Private	$5,576	$49,464	1.5 yrs
5	Duke University Durham, NC · Private	$7,160	$52,941	1.6 yrs
6	Rice University Houston, TX · Private	$6,152	$49,840	1.7 yrs
7	Bates College Lewiston, ME · Private	$9,845	$51,273	2.4 yrs
8	Princeton University Princeton, NJ · Private	$5,542	$43,798	2.5 yrs
9	University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, PA · Private	$12,020	$53,775	2.6 yrs
10	Dartmouth College Hanover, NH · Private	$12,172	$50,856	3.1 yrs
11	The University of Texas at Dallas Richardson, TX · Public	$14,583	$48,041	4.5 yrs
12	University of Notre Dame Notre Dame, IN · Private	$14,020	$45,529	5.3 yrs
13	Virginia Military Institute Lexington, VA · Public	$13,613	$45,094	5.4 yrs
14	Wake Forest University Winston-Salem, NC · Private	$10,228	$41,789	6 yrs
15	Wellesley College Wellesley, MA · Private	$10,792	$41,937	6.2 yrs
16	Northwestern University Evanston, IL · Private	$5,849	$38,505	6.7 yrs
17	George Washington University Washington, DC · Private	$21,174	$46,673	7.3 yrs
18	University of Chicago Chicago, IL · Private	$8,375	$39,369	7.7 yrs
19	California State University-Los Angeles Los Angeles, CA · Public	$5,700	$37,568	8.9 yrs
20	Columbia University in the City of New York New York, NY · Private	$8,106	$38,597	9 yrs
21	San Jose State University San Jose, CA · Public	$17,338	$42,682	9 yrs
22	CUNY Queens College Queens, NY · Public	$7,582	$38,289	9.2 yrs
23	Northeastern University Boston, MA · Private	$18,389	$42,682	9.6 yrs
24	Southern Methodist University Dallas, TX · Private	$29,892	$47,260	9.8 yrs
25	McNeese State University Lake Charles, LA · Public	$11,651	$39,729	9.9 yrs
26	American University Washington, DC · Private	$27,374	$45,852	10.1 yrs
27	New York University New York, NY · Private	$31,355	$47,260	10.2 yrs
28	Towson University Towson, MD · Public	$17,667	$41,937	10.2 yrs
29	Citadel Military College of South Carolina Charleston, SC · Public	$13,358	$40,017	10.7 yrs
30	St. Joseph's University-New York Brooklyn, NY · Private	$13,223	$39,927	10.7 yrs
31	Texas Christian University Fort Worth, TX · Private	$33,018	$47,260	10.8 yrs
32	College of the Holy Cross Worcester, MA · Private	$20,142	$42,363	10.9 yrs
33	Texas A&M University-Kingsville Kingsville, TX · Public	$13,939	$40,048	11 yrs
34	Texas Tech University Lubbock, TX · Public	$15,248	$40,426	11.2 yrs
35	Le Moyne College Syracuse, NY · Private	$21,530	$42,682	11.2 yrs
36	University of Virginia-Main Campus Charlottesville, VA · Public	$16,019	$40,605	11.4 yrs
37	Clayton State University Morrow, GA · Public	$13,406	$39,585	11.7 yrs
38	Brown University Providence, RI · Private	$10,219	$38,289	12.4 yrs
39	Texas Woman's University Denton, TX · Public	$10,508	$38,289	12.8 yrs
40	University of Houston-Downtown Houston, TX · Public	$15,426	$39,648	13.3 yrs
41	Santa Clara University Santa Clara, CA · Private	$29,618	$43,798	13.5 yrs
42	University of Missouri-St Louis Saint Louis, MO · Public	$11,291	$38,289	13.7 yrs
43	Bucknell University Lewisburg, PA · Private	$26,956	$42,682	14 yrs
44	The University of Texas at Arlington Arlington, TX · Public	$15,458	$39,369	14.2 yrs
45	Connecticut College New London, CT · Private	$16,044	$39,369	14.7 yrs
46	Stonehill College Easton, MA · Private	$26,555	$42,123	14.9 yrs
47	Fordham University Bronx, NY · Private	$31,221	$43,240	15.2 yrs
48	Hobart William Smith Colleges Geneva, NY · Private	$26,463	$41,193	17.1 yrs
49	Tufts University Medford, MA · Private	$19,827	$39,369	18.2 yrs
50	University of Houston-Clear Lake Houston, TX · Public	$14,952	$38,289	18.2 yrs

Top Earners in History

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.