Best Value / By Major

Best Value Colleges for Rhetoric and Composition/Writing Studies

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

50

Schools Ranked

$28,736

Avg. Earnings

4.2 yrs

Best Payback

7,729

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 Houston-Downtown Houston, TX · Public	$15,426	$49,683	4.2 yrs
2	Wabash College Crawfordsville, IN · Private	$19,742	$49,058	5.6 yrs
3	The University of Texas at Arlington Arlington, TX · Public	$15,458	$43,319	7.4 yrs
4	Metropolitan State University of Denver Denver, CO · Public	$14,679	$42,276	8.1 yrs
5	Missouri State University-Springfield Springfield, MO · Public	$15,950	$41,193	10.3 yrs
6	Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh, PA · Private	$21,526	$42,682	11.2 yrs
7	Michigan State University East Lansing, MI · Public	$20,557	$40,945	13.8 yrs
8	University of Minnesota-Twin Cities Minneapolis, MN · Public	$12,911	$38,498	14.8 yrs
9	George Mason University Fairfax, VA · Public	$19,066	$39,729	16.1 yrs
10	University of Michigan-Flint Flint, MI · Public	$13,218	$38,289	16.1 yrs
11	University of California-Berkeley Berkeley, CA · Public	$13,423	$38,289	16.3 yrs
12	Bucknell University Lewisburg, PA · Private	$26,956	$41,565	16.4 yrs
13	Southern Illinois University-Carbondale Carbondale, IL · Public	$14,499	$38,289	17.6 yrs
14	Brandeis University Waltham, MA · Private	$24,183	$40,368	18 yrs
15	Clemson University Clemson, SC · Public	$20,797	$39,489	18.5 yrs
16	University of Southern California Los Angeles, CA · Private	$22,826	$39,909	18.6 yrs
17	University of North Texas Denton, TX · Public	$14,132	$37,808	20.1 yrs
18	Illinois College Jacksonville, IL · Private	$17,846	$38,289	21.7 yrs
19	James Madison University Harrisonburg, VA · Public	$19,216	$38,289	23.4 yrs
20	Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania Shippensburg, PA · Public	$22,033	$38,721	23.7 yrs
21	The University of Texas at Austin Austin, TX · Public	$16,134	$37,671	24.2 yrs
22	Arizona State University Campus Immersion Tempe, AZ · Public	$15,561	$37,568	24.2 yrs
23	West Chester University of Pennsylvania West Chester, PA · Public	$19,085	$38,072	24.9 yrs
24	Loyola University Maryland Baltimore, MD · Private	$29,885	$39,009	29.8 yrs
25	Texas State University San Marcos, TX · Public	$12,996	$36,282	40.5 yrs
26	North Central College Naperville, IL · Private	$21,783	$36,848	47.1 yrs
27	DePauw University Greencastle, IN · Private	$22,316	$36,745	51.2 yrs
28	University of South Florida Tampa, FL · Public	$9,669	$35,740	52.3 yrs
29	Baylor University Waco, TX · Private	$31,907	$36,668	76.5 yrs
30	Johns Hopkins University Baltimore, MD · Private	$8,457	$32,569	N/A
31	Marquette University Milwaukee, WI · Private	$25,377	$31,581	N/A
32	University of Nebraska at Kearney Kearney, NE · Public	$16,311	$28,960	N/A
33	Miami University-Oxford Oxford, OH · Public	$23,513	$33,993	N/A
34	Utah State University Logan, UT · Public	$13,553	$34,526	N/A
35	Texas Tech University Lubbock, TX · Public	$15,248	$33,382	N/A
36	Seattle University Seattle, WA · Private	$32,076	$26,353	N/A
37	Metropolitan State University Saint Paul, MN · Public	$16,515	$31,133	N/A
38	San Francisco State University San Francisco, CA · Public	$16,065	$30,988	N/A
39	St. Joseph's University-New York Brooklyn, NY · Private	$13,223	$33,565	N/A
40	University at Albany Albany, NY · Public	$19,727	$28,151	N/A
41	University of Pittsburgh-Bradford Bradford, PA · Public	$17,344	$34,793	N/A
42	University of Pittsburgh-Greensburg Greensburg, PA · Public	$15,996	$34,793	N/A
43	University of Pittsburgh-Johnstown Johnstown, PA · Public	$17,271	$34,793	N/A
44	University of Pittsburgh-Pittsburgh Campus Pittsburgh, PA · Public	$24,139	$34,793	N/A
45	University of New Mexico-Main Campus Albuquerque, NM · Public	$16,644	$27,091	N/A
46	University of Colorado Denver/Anschutz Medical Campus Denver, CO · Public	$15,406	$32,925	N/A
47	Emory University Atlanta, GA · Private	$16,646	$23,649	N/A
48	Old Dominion University Norfolk, VA · Public	$16,954	$31,585	N/A
49	University of Wisconsin-Stout Menomonie, WI · Public	$15,247	$30,228	N/A
50	Saint Edward's University Austin, TX · Private	$24,710	$29,685	N/A

Top Earners in Rhetoric and Composition/Writing Studies

See schools ranked by earnings alone, without considering cost.

Best Value Rankings

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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.