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

1 Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center-New Orleans · New Orleans · public +$3.22M
2 Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady University · Baton Rouge · private +$2.77M
3 University of Holy Cross · New Orleans · private +$2.74M
4 Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College · Baton Rouge · public +$2.02M
5 Louisiana Christian University · Pineville · private +$1.94M
6 Louisiana Tech University · Ruston · public +$1.64M
7 University of Louisiana at Lafayette · Lafayette · public +$1.59M
8 McNeese State University · Lake Charles · public +$1.49M
9 University of Louisiana at Monroe · Monroe · public +$1.35M
10 Northwestern State University of Louisiana · Natchitoches · public +$1.31M
11 Southern University and A & M College · Baton Rouge · public +$1.23M
12 Nicholls State University · Thibodaux · public +$1.17M
13 Southeastern Louisiana University · Hammond · public +$1.10M
14 University of New Orleans · New Orleans · public +$829K
15 Louisiana State University-Shreveport · Shreveport · public +$823K

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

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