Best Value / By Major

Best Value Colleges for Neurobiology and Neurosciences

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

50

Schools Ranked

$29,919

Avg. Earnings

1.6 yrs

Best Payback

3,829

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	$41,565	1.6 yrs
2	Columbia University in the City of New York New York, NY · Private	$8,106	$38,829	8.5 yrs
3	Stonehill College Easton, MA · Private	$26,555	$44,747	10.9 yrs
4	Dartmouth College Hanover, NH · Private	$12,172	$39,369	11.1 yrs
5	Wellesley College Wellesley, MA · Private	$10,792	$38,289	13.1 yrs
6	Bowdoin College Brunswick, ME · Private	$14,896	$39,369	13.6 yrs
7	Emmanuel College Boston, MA · Private	$29,397	$39,729	24.9 yrs
8	Northeastern University Boston, MA · Private	$18,389	$37,568	28.6 yrs
9	Barnard College New York, NY · Private	$19,810	$37,568	30.9 yrs
10	Boston University Boston, MA · Private	$18,458	$36,728	42.7 yrs
11	Middlebury College Middlebury, VT · Private	$13,580	$36,134	47.9 yrs
12	University of New Hampshire at Manchester Manchester, NH · Public	$12,787	$35,240	213.1 yrs
13	University of New Hampshire-Main Campus Durham, NH · Public	$20,896	$35,240	348.3 yrs
14	University of Southern California Los Angeles, CA · Private	$22,826	$29,685	N/A
15	University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, PA · Private	$12,020	$29,685	N/A
16	Binghamton University Vestal, NY · Public	$21,423	$28,753	N/A
17	Indiana University-Bloomington Bloomington, IN · Public	$12,369	$29,685	N/A
18	Emory University Atlanta, GA · Private	$16,646	$20,687	N/A
19	Central Michigan University Mount Pleasant, MI · Public	$15,720	$28,816	N/A
20	Duke University Durham, NC · Private	$7,160	$31,133	N/A
21	University of San Diego San Diego, CA · Private	$28,214	$28,960	N/A
22	University of Colorado Boulder Boulder, CO · Public	$18,204	$31,423	N/A
23	University of California-Santa Cruz Santa Cruz, CA · Public	$15,567	$33,459	N/A
24	Union College Schenectady, NY · Private	$24,375	$31,133	N/A
25	George Mason University Fairfax, VA · Public	$19,066	$28,960	N/A
26	Ohio State University-Main Campus Columbus, OH · Public	$13,273	$24,904	N/A
27	Brandeis University Waltham, MA · Private	$24,183	$32,569	N/A
28	Carthage College Kenosha, WI · Private	$26,106	$32,284	N/A
29	University of Pittsburgh-Pittsburgh Campus Pittsburgh, PA · Public	$24,139	$21,964	N/A
30	The University of Texas at Austin Austin, TX · Public	$16,134	$32,925	N/A
31	Temple University Philadelphia, PA · Public	$21,568	$31,133	N/A
32	University of California-Davis Davis, CA · Public	$14,193	$30,047	N/A
33	University of California-San Diego La Jolla, CA · Public	$14,310	$28,381	N/A
34	Wheaton College (Massachusetts) Norton, MA · Private	$22,415	$30,771	N/A
35	Brigham Young University Provo, UT · Private	$12,676	$25,194	N/A
36	Vanderbilt University Nashville, TN · Private	$7,694	$25,194	N/A
37	University of Minnesota-Twin Cities Minneapolis, MN · Public	$12,911	$31,907	N/A
38	University of Delaware Newark, DE · Public	$17,260	$15,922	N/A
39	Michigan State University East Lansing, MI · Public	$20,557	$25,194	N/A
40	University of Cincinnati-Main Campus Cincinnati, OH · Public	$20,867	$24,035	N/A
41	University of Nevada-Reno Reno, NV · Public	$15,106	$26,585	N/A
42	University of Illinois Chicago Chicago, IL · Public	$14,105	$25,967	N/A
43	Johns Hopkins University Baltimore, MD · Private	$8,457	$29,685	N/A
44	Washington State University Pullman, WA · Public	$14,233	$28,236	N/A
45	University of Michigan-Ann Arbor Ann Arbor, MI · Public	$10,481	$23,108	N/A
46	University of California-Los Angeles Los Angeles, CA · Public	$12,644	$33,459	N/A
47	University of Nebraska at Omaha Omaha, NE · Public	$13,574	$30,409	N/A
48	University of Vermont Burlington, VT · Public	$17,585	$34,526	N/A
49	University of Arizona Tucson, AZ · Public	$13,644	$30,771	N/A
50	William & Mary Williamsburg, VA · Public	$10,995	$21,964	N/A

Top Earners in Neurobiology and Neurosciences

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.