Best Value / By Major

Best Value Colleges for Linguistic, Comparative, and Related Language Studies and Services

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

50

Schools Ranked

$28,268

Avg. Earnings

2 yrs

Best Payback

3,180

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 Chicago Chicago, IL · Private	$8,375	$52,107	2 yrs
2	Duke University Durham, NC · Private	$7,160	$42,682	3.7 yrs
3	Mississippi State University Mississippi State, MS · Public	$18,449	$52,107	4.3 yrs
4	Georgia Institute of Technology-Main Campus Atlanta, GA · Public	$15,415	$47,394	5 yrs
5	Cornell University Ithaca, NY · Private	$9,785	$41,193	6.3 yrs
6	Stephen F Austin State University Nacogdoches, TX · Public	$13,192	$42,682	6.9 yrs
7	Monmouth University West Long Branch, NJ · Private	$28,313	$50,231	7.4 yrs
8	Virginia Military Institute Lexington, VA · Public	$13,613	$39,909	11.1 yrs
9	James Madison University Harrisonburg, VA · Public	$19,216	$40,821	13.2 yrs
10	University of North Georgia Dahlonega, GA · Public	$11,005	$37,671	16.5 yrs
11	George Mason University Fairfax, VA · Public	$19,066	$39,369	17.5 yrs
12	Old Dominion University Norfolk, VA · Public	$16,954	$37,208	30.7 yrs
13	Towson University Towson, MD · Public	$17,667	$37,208	32 yrs
14	University of Rochester Rochester, NY · Private	$23,108	$37,856	32.4 yrs
15	University of Maryland-Baltimore County Baltimore, MD · Public	$20,879	$37,208	37.8 yrs
16	West Virginia University Morgantown, WV · Public	$13,077	$36,134	46.1 yrs
17	Ramapo College of New Jersey Mahwah, NJ · Public	$22,026	$36,488	59.2 yrs
18	Iowa State University Ames, IA · Public	$14,641	$35,060	976.1 yrs
19	Brandeis University Waltham, MA · Private	$24,183	$28,598	N/A
20	Emory University Atlanta, GA · Private	$16,646	$33,993	N/A
21	Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University Blacksburg, VA · Public	$18,372	$31,314	N/A
22	Michigan State University East Lansing, MI · Public	$20,557	$18,771	N/A
23	Georgetown University Washington, DC · Private	$12,505	$32,563	N/A
24	Stony Brook University Stony Brook, NY · Public	$19,344	$16,169	N/A
25	University of California-Los Angeles Los Angeles, CA · Public	$12,644	$27,874	N/A
26	University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Champaign, IL · Public	$11,505	$26,353	N/A
27	University of California-Santa Barbara Santa Barbara, CA · Public	$14,583	$30,988	N/A
28	University of Missouri-Columbia Columbia, MO · Public	$13,715	$18,401	N/A
29	Brigham Young University Provo, UT · Private	$12,676	$28,164	N/A
30	The University of Texas at Austin Austin, TX · Public	$16,134	$25,194	N/A
31	University of California-Davis Davis, CA · Public	$14,193	$25,856	N/A
32	University of California-San Diego La Jolla, CA · Public	$14,310	$22,420	N/A
33	Colorado State University-Fort Collins Fort Collins, CO · Public	$15,086	$33,565	N/A
34	University of Washington-Seattle Campus Seattle, WA · Public	$8,393	$25,426	N/A
35	Montana State University Bozeman, MT · Public	$19,942	$28,960	N/A
36	University of Michigan-Ann Arbor Ann Arbor, MI · Public	$10,481	$21,964	N/A
37	The University of Texas at Dallas Richardson, TX · Public	$14,583	$23,693	N/A
38	University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Chapel Hill, NC · Public	$11,619	$21,508	N/A
39	Christopher Newport University Newport News, VA · Public	$21,165	$31,670	N/A
40	University of Arizona Tucson, AZ · Public	$13,644	$26,353	N/A
41	The University of Tennessee-Knoxville Knoxville, TN · Public	$22,476	$30,771	N/A
42	Clemson University Clemson, SC · Public	$20,797	$27,669	N/A
43	Portland State University Portland, OR · Public	$12,964	$28,055	N/A
44	University of Pittsburgh-Pittsburgh Campus Pittsburgh, PA · Public	$24,139	$27,874	N/A
45	Metropolitan State University of Denver Denver, CO · Public	$14,679	$31,423	N/A
46	University of California-Santa Cruz Santa Cruz, CA · Public	$15,567	$24,832	N/A
47	California State University-San Bernardino San Bernardino, CA · Public	$9,854	$26,625	N/A
48	Commonwealth University of Pennsylvania Bloomsburg, PA · Public	$18,004	$33,281	N/A
49	University of Florida Gainesville, FL · Public	$8,394	$29,995	N/A
50	Colorado State University Pueblo Pueblo, CO · Public	$13,811	$28,960	N/A

Top Earners in Linguistic, Comparative, and Related Language Studies and Services

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.