Best Value / By Major

Best Value Colleges for Management Sciences and Quantitative Methods

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

50

Schools Ranked

$52,836

Avg. Earnings

<1 yr

Best Payback

8,171

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	$78,814	<1 yr
2	University of Florida Gainesville, FL · Public	$8,394	$62,508	1.2 yrs
3	Purdue University-Main Campus West Lafayette, IN · Public	$8,450	$63,997	1.2 yrs
4	University of Connecticut-Avery Point Groton, CT · Public	$9,414	$66,113	1.2 yrs
5	University of Connecticut-Waterbury Campus Waterbury, CT · Public	$10,112	$66,113	1.3 yrs
6	University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Champaign, IL · Public	$11,505	$68,592	1.4 yrs
7	University of Connecticut-Hartford Campus Hartford, CT · Public	$10,515	$66,113	1.4 yrs
8	Wake Forest University Winston-Salem, NC · Private	$10,228	$63,005	1.5 yrs
9	University of Washington-Seattle Campus Seattle, WA · Public	$8,393	$57,318	1.5 yrs
10	University of Washington-Bothell Campus Bothell, WA · Public	$9,439	$57,318	1.7 yrs
11	Brigham Young University Provo, UT · Private	$12,676	$64,990	1.7 yrs
12	University of Maryland-College Park College Park, MD · Public	$17,360	$72,762	1.8 yrs
13	Florida State University Tallahassee, FL · Public	$11,506	$60,878	1.8 yrs
14	University of Connecticut-Stamford Stamford, CT · Public	$15,152	$66,113	1.9 yrs
15	Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University Blacksburg, VA · Public	$18,372	$70,680	2.1 yrs
16	University of Nebraska-Lincoln Lincoln, NE · Public	$15,394	$64,493	2.1 yrs
17	The University of Texas at San Antonio San Antonio, TX · Public	$10,316	$54,671	2.1 yrs
18	Ball State University Muncie, IN · Public	$15,158	$63,997	2.1 yrs
19	Lehigh University Bethlehem, PA · Private	$19,026	$71,015	2.1 yrs
20	Arizona State University Campus Immersion Tempe, AZ · Public	$15,561	$63,005	2.2 yrs
21	Ohio State University-Main Campus Columbus, OH · Public	$13,273	$57,995	2.3 yrs
22	Drake University Des Moines, IA · Private	$26,088	$78,971	2.4 yrs
23	University of Central Missouri Warrensburg, MO · Public	$14,267	$59,124	2.4 yrs
24	Rutgers University-New Brunswick New Brunswick, NJ · Public	$20,927	$67,995	2.5 yrs
25	St. John's University-New York Queens, NY · Private	$27,080	$78,719	2.5 yrs
26	Temple University Philadelphia, PA · Public	$21,568	$69,732	2.5 yrs
27	CUNY Bernard M Baruch College New York, NY · Public	$7,187	$45,852	2.6 yrs
28	University of Iowa Iowa City, IA · Public	$18,026	$62,260	2.6 yrs
29	University of Connecticut Storrs, CT · Public	$20,344	$66,113	2.6 yrs
30	Central Michigan University Mount Pleasant, MI · Public	$15,720	$59,045	2.6 yrs
31	George Mason University Fairfax, VA · Public	$19,066	$63,430	2.7 yrs
32	The University of Texas at Dallas Richardson, TX · Public	$14,583	$56,415	2.7 yrs
33	Bentley University Waltham, MA · Private	$31,754	$79,653	2.8 yrs
34	University of Arkansas Fayetteville, AR · Public	$16,256	$58,402	2.8 yrs
35	University of South Carolina-Columbia Columbia, SC · Public	$20,325	$62,848	2.9 yrs
36	New York University New York, NY · Private	$31,355	$76,460	3 yrs
37	Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College Baton Rouge, LA · Public	$19,623	$60,523	3.1 yrs
38	National Louis University Chicago, IL · Private	$16,487	$56,234	3.1 yrs
39	Bradley University Peoria, IL · Private	$23,286	$64,773	3.1 yrs
40	University of Denver Denver, CO · Private	$27,767	$69,338	3.2 yrs
41	Indiana State University Terre Haute, IN · Public	$15,588	$53,775	3.3 yrs
42	University of California-Santa Barbara Santa Barbara, CA · Public	$14,583	$52,107	3.4 yrs
43	Michigan State University East Lansing, MI · Public	$20,557	$58,673	3.5 yrs
44	Cleveland State University Cleveland, OH · Public	$18,468	$56,234	3.5 yrs
45	Iowa State University Ames, IA · Public	$14,641	$51,392	3.6 yrs
46	Southeastern Oklahoma State University Durant, OK · Public	$10,324	$46,087	3.7 yrs
47	Georgia State University Atlanta, GA · Public	$18,466	$53,775	3.9 yrs
48	Maryville University of Saint Louis Saint Louis, MO · Private	$26,965	$63,005	3.9 yrs
49	Saint Joseph's University - Philadelphia Philadelphia, PA · Private	$26,825	$61,630	4 yrs
50	The University of Alabama Tuscaloosa, AL · Public	$21,649	$56,351	4.1 yrs

Top Earners in Management Sciences and Quantitative Methods

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.