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

1 Missouri University of Science and Technology · Rolla · public +$4.57M
2 Washington University in St Louis · Saint Louis · private +$2.19M
3 Park University · Parkville · private +$2.13M
4 University of Missouri-Kansas City · Kansas City · public +$1.74M
5 William Jewell College · Liberty · private +$1.66M
6 University of Missouri-Columbia · Columbia · public +$1.66M
7 Columbia College · Columbia · private +$1.61M
8 University of Central Missouri · Warrensburg · public +$1.50M
9 Maryville University of Saint Louis · Saint Louis · private +$1.50M
10 University of Missouri-St Louis · Saint Louis · public +$1.35M
11 Missouri Western State University · Saint Joseph · public +$1.24M
12 Missouri Southern State University · Joplin · public +$1.22M
13 Northwest Missouri State University · Maryville · public +$1.19M
14 Truman State University · Kirksville · public +$1.07M
15 Lindenwood University · Saint Charles · private +$966K

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

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