A new billboard welcomes students driving into Boston for college visits: “Bentley University – Top 1% in ROI.” In a city dominated by some of the most sought-after schools in country— Harvard, MIT, Northeastern, Tufts, and Wellesley—Bentley’s declaration reflects a national trend that prioritizes the return on investment (ROI) of college over more nebulous qualities such as prestige or contentious “best” categories. The undergraduate business school proudly highlights its #8 rank on U.S. News & World Report’s ROI list, noting that their bachelor’s degree is worth “$312,000 after 10 years and $3.83 million after 40.”
In an era of broader uncertainty about the future of work based on AI advances, declining public confidence in higher education, and rising tuition costs (as of August 2025, the average cost per year was $56,628 at private colleges and $27,146 at publics), it makes sense for universities to emphasize the long-term financial value of their degrees. It’s good too that students and parents are thinking critically about value as they expand their school choices. But ROI is a complex denominator when evaluating education, going far beyond life-time income. Before you use ROI as a filter in your application strategy as in Money’s annual 5-star rankings, it’s worth looking beyond the billboards and the rankings.
ROI IN COLLEGE ADMISSIONS: THE MAJORS
Your choice of major is the most significant indicator of lifetime earnings. Computer science and engineering graduates often earn substantially higher starting salaries than classmates in other majors, even when they attend the same university.
That’s why ROI rankings so often favor schools with large concentrations of students in high-paying disciplines and why universities specializing in STEM dominate the top spots. In U.S. News’s “Higher Education ROI over 40 Years” spotlight feature by Poets&Quants, only half of the top 10 schools are Ivy+ institutions. On that list, Bentley, Stevens Institute of Technology, and Lehigh University join much more selective schools and are capped by the STEM-dominant Harvey Mudd College and MIT at the very top. At these institutions, roughly three-quarters of students are engineers, computer scientists, or mathematicians. The Student Choice analysis of degree outcomes highlights how wide the gap can be: fields like computer science, engineering, and nursing consistently deliver the highest early-career payoffs, while majors such as education, communications, and the arts start lower on the earnings scale.
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Specialized schools also show strong value but require an early commitment to specific fields like nursing or pharmacy. A 2025 study from Georgetown’s Center on Education and the Workforce ranked the University of Health Sciences and Pharmacy in St. Louis in the top spot for ROI with $4,562,000 in earnings over 40 years. Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences and Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences followed closely behind at #4 and #5, while Massachusetts Maritime Academy ranked #12.
In short, a school’s overall ROI rank says more about the mix of majors on campus than the return any given student might expect. If lifetime value is a key factor for your family, consider major-specific outcomes both when weighing the value of a college and declaring your major.
THE INTANGIBLES
Not all value is captured in salary statistics. Beyond STEM-heavy institutions, schools rise in ROI for other reasons. Princeton and Yale, for example, boast their high acceptance rates into law and public policy programs. Penn and Columbia maintain strong pipelines into finance and consulting, while Georgetown leverages its location and influence in Washington D.C.’s political circles.
Alumni networks and graduate school acceptances also shape career opportunities long after graduation. Most institutions publish data on the percentage of graduates pursuing higher degrees, and schools like Dartmouth, Colgate, Williams, and UVA proudly market their alumni connections even if they don’t top ROI lists outright.
While it can be tempting to zero in on ROI alone, other factors influence long-term success. Liberal arts colleges, though rarely leading ROI rankings, offer the opportunity to study alongside students from a wide range of academic backgrounds (artists, teachers, writers, scientists, and entrepreneurs), creating a richer learning environment than one dominated by a handful of lucrative disciplines or students all competing in the same field. Students from liberal arts backgrounds also develop flexible skill sets that allow them to pivot careers and adapt to the evolving job market. Many achieve exceptional results in professional school admissions, including medicine, due to their close faculty relationships and access to research opportunities.
YOUR STRATEGY
Gaining admission to a school of choice is only the first step. What you do after you are admitted— the classes you take, the relationships you build, the risks you embrace, and the experiences you seek—will ultimately determine more about your outcomes than the name of the college on your sweatshirt.
As career paths grow less predictable and job longevity less certain, it makes sense for prospective students to track ROI and post-graduate outcomes. A high ROI ranking can reveal a school’s STEM focus or strong alumni network, but those numbers inevitably generalize away what makes each institution unique.
The best starting point for your college search isn’t the rankings; it’s clarifying your own priorities and identifying the environments where you’ll thrive. ROI is a valuable lens, but the true return on investment comes from the curiosity you develop in high school and take with you to college so that you can fully engage with the opportunities your college experience offers.
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After attending Castilleja School in Palo Alto, California, Heidi graduated cum laude with an Honors thesis from Dartmouth College as a double major in Classical Archaeology and Comparative Literature. At the University of Pennsylvania, Heidi was a Williams Fellow in the graduate program of Art and Archaeology of the Mediterranean World. She has conducted archaeological field work in Sardinia, Cyprus, Greece, and Turkey.
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