Best Value / By Major

Best Value Colleges for Mathematics

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

50

Schools Ranked

$45,431

Avg. Earnings

<1 yr

Best Payback

10,503

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	$117,572	<1 yr
2	Rice University Houston, TX · Private	$6,152	$97,071	<1 yr
3	Swarthmore College Swarthmore, PA · Private	$11,521	$125,015	<1 yr
4	Duke University Durham, NC · Private	$7,160	$81,333	<1 yr
5	Northwestern University Evanston, IL · Private	$5,849	$75,518	<1 yr
6	Washington and Lee University Lexington, VA · Private	$6,505	$76,460	<1 yr
7	Dartmouth College Hanover, NH · Private	$12,172	$103,078	<1 yr
8	Vanderbilt University Nashville, TN · Private	$7,694	$80,309	<1 yr
9	Johns Hopkins University Baltimore, MD · Private	$8,457	$86,867	<1 yr
10	Cornell University Ithaca, NY · Private	$9,785	$91,211	<1 yr
11	University of Chicago Chicago, IL · Private	$8,375	$72,022	<1 yr
12	Amherst College Amherst, MA · Private	$7,793	$67,660	1 yrs
13	CUNY Bernard M Baruch College New York, NY · Public	$7,187	$61,064	1.1 yrs
14	Williams College Williamstown, MA · Private	$5,576	$53,358	1.2 yrs
15	Wake Forest University Winston-Salem, NC · Private	$10,228	$70,456	1.2 yrs
16	University of Michigan-Ann Arbor Ann Arbor, MI · Public	$10,481	$65,938	1.4 yrs
17	Lafayette College Easton, PA · Private	$13,393	$65,332	1.8 yrs
18	Boston College Chestnut Hill, MA · Private	$17,098	$70,596	1.9 yrs
19	Bowdoin College Brunswick, ME · Private	$14,896	$67,101	1.9 yrs
20	Texas A & M International University Laredo, TX · Public	$4,262	$44,170	1.9 yrs
21	CUNY Brooklyn College Brooklyn, NY · Public	$7,219	$49,631	2 yrs
22	Brigham Young University-Idaho Rexburg, ID · Private	$5,422	$45,696	2 yrs
23	Georgetown University Washington, DC · Private	$12,505	$57,318	2.2 yrs
24	Indiana University-Bloomington Bloomington, IN · Public	$12,369	$57,318	2.2 yrs
25	Hamilton College Clinton, NY · Private	$13,321	$59,045	2.2 yrs
26	University of Minnesota-Twin Cities Minneapolis, MN · Public	$12,911	$57,318	2.3 yrs
27	University of Wisconsin-Madison Madison, WI · Public	$10,364	$52,107	2.4 yrs
28	George Washington University Washington, DC · Private	$21,174	$71,015	2.4 yrs
29	Emory University Atlanta, GA · Private	$16,646	$63,028	2.4 yrs
30	The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Edinburg, TX · Public	$5,452	$44,276	2.4 yrs
31	Northeastern University Boston, MA · Private	$18,389	$64,196	2.5 yrs
32	Southwest Baptist University Bolivar, MO · Private	$15,408	$59,948	2.5 yrs
33	Purdue University-Main Campus West Lafayette, IN · Public	$8,450	$48,432	2.5 yrs
34	William & Mary Williamsburg, VA · Public	$10,995	$52,107	2.6 yrs
35	University of Maryland-College Park College Park, MD · Public	$17,360	$60,771	2.7 yrs
36	University of California-Los Angeles Los Angeles, CA · Public	$12,644	$53,775	2.7 yrs
37	University of Illinois Springfield Springfield, IL · Public	$11,492	$52,107	2.7 yrs
38	Colorado School of Mines Golden, CO · Public	$24,461	$71,854	2.7 yrs
39	University of Washington-Seattle Campus Seattle, WA · Public	$8,393	$46,869	2.8 yrs
40	University of Minnesota-Morris Morris, MN · Public	$6,691	$44,170	2.9 yrs
41	Brigham Young University Provo, UT · Private	$12,676	$52,107	3 yrs
42	Rutgers University-Camden Camden, NJ · Public	$15,952	$55,693	3.1 yrs
43	University of California-Berkeley Berkeley, CA · Public	$13,423	$52,107	3.1 yrs
44	University of Washington-Bothell Campus Bothell, WA · Public	$9,439	$46,869	3.2 yrs
45	University of Iowa Iowa City, IA · Public	$18,026	$57,318	3.2 yrs
46	Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology Terre Haute, IN · Private	$34,201	$76,460	3.3 yrs
47	Occidental College Los Angeles, CA · Private	$18,209	$57,318	3.3 yrs
48	University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Champaign, IL · Public	$11,505	$48,823	3.3 yrs
49	Stephen F Austin State University Nacogdoches, TX · Public	$13,192	$50,856	3.3 yrs
50	The University of Texas at El Paso El Paso, TX · Public	$10,682	$48,139	3.3 yrs

Top Earners in Mathematics

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.