Best Value / By Major

Best Value Colleges for Materials Engineering

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

Schools Ranked

$65,789

Avg. Earnings

<1 yr

Best Payback

1,063

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	Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge, MA · Private	$2,834	$65,238	<1 yr
2	Northwestern University Evanston, IL · Private	$5,849	$63,005	<1 yr
3	University of Washington-Seattle Campus Seattle, WA · Public	$8,393	$70,680	<1 yr
4	Purdue University-Main Campus West Lafayette, IN · Public	$8,450	$68,499	1 yrs
5	University of Florida Gainesville, FL · Public	$8,394	$67,660	1 yrs
6	University of Michigan-Ann Arbor Ann Arbor, MI · Public	$10,481	$71,575	1.1 yrs
7	Michigan Technological University Houghton, MI · Public	$11,794	$73,635	1.2 yrs
8	University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, PA · Private	$12,020	$76,460	1.2 yrs
9	Cornell University Ithaca, NY · Private	$9,785	$68,778	1.2 yrs
10	University of Wisconsin-Madison Madison, WI · Public	$10,364	$66,941	1.3 yrs
11	University of Connecticut-Avery Point Groton, CT · Public	$9,414	$61,303	1.4 yrs
12	University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Champaign, IL · Public	$11,505	$66,541	1.5 yrs
13	University of Connecticut-Waterbury Campus Waterbury, CT · Public	$10,112	$61,303	1.5 yrs
14	Ohio State University-Main Campus Columbus, OH · Public	$13,273	$71,015	1.5 yrs
15	University of Connecticut-Hartford Campus Hartford, CT · Public	$10,515	$61,303	1.6 yrs
16	Lehigh University Bethlehem, PA · Private	$19,026	$74,200	1.9 yrs
17	University of Minnesota-Twin Cities Minneapolis, MN · Public	$12,911	$62,632	1.9 yrs
18	University of North Texas Denton, TX · Public	$14,132	$63,997	1.9 yrs
19	Georgia Institute of Technology-Main Campus Atlanta, GA · Public	$15,415	$65,387	2 yrs
20	Arizona State University Campus Immersion Tempe, AZ · Public	$15,561	$66,821	2 yrs
21	California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo San Luis Obispo, CA · Public	$17,340	$68,219	2.1 yrs
22	Iowa State University Ames, IA · Public	$14,641	$63,005	2.1 yrs
23	University of Maryland-College Park College Park, MD · Public	$17,360	$66,325	2.2 yrs
24	Winona State University Winona, MN · Public	$15,289	$63,217	2.2 yrs
25	North Carolina State University at Raleigh Raleigh, NC · Public	$14,424	$61,516	2.2 yrs
26	University of Connecticut-Stamford Stamford, CT · Public	$15,152	$61,303	2.3 yrs
27	Michigan State University East Lansing, MI · Public	$20,557	$69,338	2.4 yrs
28	University of Alabama at Birmingham Birmingham, AL · Public	$17,857	$64,990	2.4 yrs
29	Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University Blacksburg, VA · Public	$18,372	$61,814	2.7 yrs
30	University of Connecticut Storrs, CT · Public	$20,344	$61,303	3.1 yrs
31	Clemson University Clemson, SC · Public	$20,797	$62,012	3.1 yrs
32	The University of Tennessee-Knoxville Knoxville, TN · Public	$22,476	$58,221	3.9 yrs
33	Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Troy, NY · Private	$29,788	$64,990	4 yrs
34	Drexel University Philadelphia, PA · Private	$33,921	$63,600	4.7 yrs

Top Earners in Materials Engineering

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.