RANKING · BEST VALUE · 51 STATES

Where your state’s money goes furthest.

A national “best colleges” list answers the wrong question — the same school costs different money depending on your driver’s license. So we ranked every state’s own four-year schools at resident pricing, one list per state. Pick yours.

FREOPP 2021 earnings · IPEDS 2023 cost · BEA 2023 cost-of-living · real-earnings-coverage schools only · every school listed is NPV-positive.

Willing to move? The national list.

Priced as a non-resident everywhere — the worst case, so the number holds no matter where you’re from. California Institute of Technology still clears +$10.06M.

  1. 1 California Institute of Technology · CA +$10.06M
  2. 2 Harvey Mudd College · CA +$6.07M
  3. 3 Maine Maritime Academy · ME +$6.07M
  4. 4 California State University Maritime Academy · CA +$6.02M
  5. 5 Massachusetts Institute of Technology · MA +$5.63M
  6. 6 SUNY Maritime College · NY +$5.37M
  7. 7 Kettering University · MI +$4.99M
  8. 8 Neumont College of Computer Science · UT +$4.87M
  9. 9 New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology · NM +$4.83M
  10. 10 Massachusetts Maritime Academy · MA +$4.82M
  11. 11 Carnegie Mellon University · PA +$4.73M
  12. 12 Montana Technological University · MT +$4.71M
  13. 13 Loma Linda University · CA +$4.62M
  14. 14 Georgia Institute of Technology-Main Campus · GA +$4.44M
  15. 15 South Dakota School of Mines and Technology · SD +$4.43M

↓ Download the data (CSV) · All 51 states’ top-15 lists in one file. Free to cite with attribution. · Methodology

Cite this:

LE TEEN (2026). “Best-value colleges by state: 30-year projected net value at resident pricing.” Data: IPEDS 2023 · FREOPP 2021 · BEA 2023. https://le-teen.com/rankings/best-value/