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

1 Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology · Terre Haute · private +$4.35M
2 Purdue University-Main Campus · West Lafayette · public +$3.05M
3 University of Notre Dame · Notre Dame · private +$2.49M
4 Purdue University Northwest · Hammond · public +$2.30M
5 Purdue University Global · West Lafayette · public +$1.93M
6 Indiana Wesleyan University-Marion · Marion · private +$1.87M
7 Indiana University-Bloomington · Bloomington · public +$1.86M
8 Indiana University-Indianapolis · Indianapolis · public +$1.76M
9 Trine University · Angola · private +$1.71M
10 Vincennes University · Vincennes · public +$1.67M
11 Indiana Institute of Technology · Fort Wayne · private +$1.66M
12 Indiana University-Kokomo · Kokomo · public +$1.66M
13 Indiana University-East · Richmond · public +$1.62M
14 Oakland City University · Oakland City · private +$1.48M
15 Indiana State University · Terre Haute · public +$1.46M

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

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