FREOPP 2021 earnings · IPEDS 2023 cost · BEA 2023 cost-of-living · Alabama four-year schools, resident pricing · real-earnings-coverage only · every school shown is NPV-positive.

1 Columbia Southern University · Orange Beach · private +$4.21M
2 University of Alabama in Huntsville · Huntsville · public +$2.49M
3 Auburn University · Auburn · public +$2.20M
4 The University of Alabama · Tuscaloosa · public +$1.82M
5 Tuskegee University · Tuskegee · private +$1.81M
6 Faulkner University · Montgomery · private +$1.44M
7 University of Alabama at Birmingham · Birmingham · public +$1.43M
8 University of South Alabama · Mobile · public +$1.33M
9 Auburn University at Montgomery · Montgomery · public +$1.30M
10 Alabama A & M University · Normal · public +$1.29M
11 Athens State University · Athens · public +$1.24M
12 Troy University · Troy · public +$1.16M
13 Jacksonville State University · Jacksonville · public +$1.14M
14 University of North Alabama · Florence · public +$857K
15 Huntingdon College · Montgomery · private +$831K

How this is computed (and what it isn’t)

For each school we run the /worth-it calculator with the home state set to Alabama — resident tuition, plus foregone wages, capitalized loan interest, and BEA cost-of-living on the skip-college path. The ranking is the 30-year projected net value of going vs. skipping and investing the difference. It ranks schools, not majors — and the major you pick swings that payoff by over a million dollars on its own.

What it isn’t: a list of “good schools.” It’s a list of good trades at resident pricing. Schools without real FREOPP earnings coverage are excluded rather than estimated; institutions whose earnings roll up from fewer than 3 reported programs are excluded as too thin to rank; schools verified closed since the IPEDS 2023-24 vintage are excluded by hand. Only NPV-positive schools are listed — the point is where the value is, not naming losers.