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

1 American Public University System · Charles Town · private +$3.21M
2 West Virginia University · Morgantown · public +$1.76M
3 University of Charleston · Charleston · private +$1.58M
4 Shepherd University · Shepherdstown · public +$1.20M
5 Fairmont State University · Fairmont · public +$1.05M
6 Wheeling University · Wheeling · private +$686K
7 Marshall University · Huntington · public +$626K
8 West Virginia University at Parkersburg · Parkersburg · public +$599K
9 Bluefield State University · Bluefield · public +$533K
10 West Virginia Wesleyan College · Buckhannon · private +$468K
11 West Liberty University · West Liberty · public +$448K
12 Glenville State University · Glenville · public +$312K
13 West Virginia State University · Institute · public +$5K

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

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