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

1 Waldorf University · Forest City · private +$3.35M
2 Iowa State University · Ames · public +$2.67M
3 University of Iowa · Iowa City · public +$1.88M
4 University of Northern Iowa · Cedar Falls · public +$1.67M
5 Upper Iowa University · Fayette · private +$1.57M
6 Mount Mercy University · Cedar Rapids · private +$1.42M
7 Briar Cliff University · Sioux City · private +$1.41M
8 Northwestern College · Orange City · private +$1.25M
9 Drake University · Des Moines · private +$1.12M
10 Clarke University · Dubuque · private +$1.04M
11 Simpson College · Indianola · private +$969K
12 Saint Ambrose University · Davenport · private +$904K
13 Grand View University · Des Moines · private +$865K
14 Dordt University · Sioux Center · private +$799K
15 University of Dubuque · Dubuque · private +$672K

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

For each school we run the /worth-it calculator with the home state set to Iowa — 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.