As a new school year begins and summer fades into memory, students are (mostly) hard at work earning their college degree.

Some may have just started their college career, others may be a few credits from finishing, but nearly all are there to graduate, get that diploma, and start earning a living in the real world. For most of us, though, our alma matter never really leaves us. We all like to think we went to the best school and got the best education, but that can’t be true for everyone, right?

That got us thinking, so we looked into the data to see how college costs stack up against post-graduation earnings, both six and ten years post-enrollment. In other words, these are the colleges that will earn you the most salary post-graduation relative to what you paid to attend.

Our data comes straight out of the most recent College Scorecard release, which tracks everything from attendance figures and acceptance rate to student debt and more.

At the bottom we’ve included a list of the top 50, but first, here’s a quick look at the top 10:

New York – United States Merchant Marine Academy Georgia – Augusta University Connecticut – University of Connecticut – Stamford West Virginia – American Public University System California – California State University Maritime Academy Nebraska – Bellevue University Minnesota – Capella University Florida – University of Florida – Online Utah – Brigham Young University – Provo Washington – University of Washington – Tacoma

Leveraging the data from College Scorecard, we looked at three variables:

The cost of attendance

Earnings 6 years post-enrollment (early career)

Earnings 10 years post-enrollment (established career)

From there, we limited our list to remove community colleges so we could focus specifically on primarily undergraduate institutions. Finally, we ranked colleges on each attribute and averaged the three numbers to determine which ones had outcomes of strong career earnings both in the short term and long term without breaking the bank to get there.

With all the methodology out of the way, here’s the full list.

Best Value Colleges in Each State

State College Cost of Attendance Early Career Earnings Established Career Earnings Alaska University of Alaska Anchorage $19,126 $41,500 $51,200 Alabama University of Alabama in Huntsville $22,108 $40,300 $52,000 Arkansas University of Arkansas $22,122 $40,900 $52,700 Arizona Chamberlain University-Arizona $25,746 $69,800 $60,400 California California State University Maritime Academy $22,301 $76,700 $87,800 Colorado University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus $21,105 $48,700 $71,200 Connecticut University of Connecticut-Stamford $15,747 $49,800 $66,000 Delaware University of Delaware $25,210 $48,100 $64,000 Florida University of Florida-Online $16,735 $47,700 $65,700 Georgia Augusta University $17,946 $52,300 $70,600 Hawaii University of Hawaii at Manoa $23,015 $39,000 $51,800 Iowa University of Iowa $21,875 $47,700 $62,000 Idaho Brigham Young University-Idaho $11,833 $35,600 $49,400 Illinois University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign $30,064 $52,300 $70,900 Indiana Purdue University $22,718 $49,000 $62,200 Kansas University of Kansas $24,824 $45,100 $59,300 Kentucky University of Kentucky $27,215 $43,500 $54,000 Louisiana Louisiana State University $27,612 $45,000 $60,100 Massachusetts Massachusetts Maritime Academy $23,932 $75,200 $96,000 Maryland University of Maryland-University College $18,719 $47,700 $55,900 Maine Maine Maritime Academy $26,948 $82,000 $107,200 Michigan University of Michigan-Ann Arbor $28,652 $55,900 $79,000 Minnesota Capella University $19,836 $51,500 $72,600 Missouri Missouri University of Science and Technology $22,045 $57,200 $72,400 Mississippi University of Mississippi $23,606 $41,300 $56,600 Montana Montana Technological University $18,433 $48,100 $52,100 North Carolina University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill $24,872 $49,900 $68,800 North Dakota University of North Dakota $19,670 $45,400 $57,800 Nebraska Bellevue University $16,865 $52,200 $60,500 New Hampshire University of New Hampshire at Manchester $20,305 $44,900 $57,700 New Jersey Rutgers University-Newark $24,719 $48,200 $68,100 New Mexico New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology $20,727 $49,000 $58,500 Nevada University of Nevada-Reno $21,142 $41,600 $56,300 New York United States Merchant Marine Academy $8,429 $78,600 $98,600 Ohio Mount Carmel College of Nursing $21,029 $54,900 $58,100 Oklahoma University of Oklahoma-Norman Campus $27,205 $48,600 $61,900 Oregon Oregon Institute of Technology $22,466 $52,900 $57,800 Pennsylvania Penn State Wilkes-Barre $21,350 $43,600 $57,200 Rhode Island University of Rhode Island $27,834 $42,500 $58,400 South Carolina Clemson University $28,545 $48,100 $58,900 South Dakota South Dakota School of Mines and Technology $23,835 $56,400 $62,400 Tennessee Baptist Memorial College of Health Sciences $20,606 $47,100 $56,000 Texas The University of Texas at Austin $24,933 $52,200 $73,900 Utah Brigham Young University-Provo $17,801 $46,600 $71,500 Virginia Chamberlain University-Virginia $25,746 $69,800 $60,400 Vermont University of Vermont $31,606 $40,400 $55,200 Washington University of Washington-Tacoma Campus $20,426 $50,300 $69,600 Wisconsin University of Wisconsin-Madison $25,121 $49,600 $68,000 West Virginia American Public University System $15,847 $49,200 $67,000 Wyoming University of Wyoming $19,615 $44,200 $54,200

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