Which Colleges Will Make You Richest? (Bonus: One’s In Brooklyn!)


Go here if you don’t want to be poor in 20 years.
Congrats to NYU’s smarter and oft-maligned little Brooklyn brother, which ranked eighth among U.S. colleges with the highest-earning graduates over 20 years, according to Payscale’s annual college ROI report. Which took the top seven spots? A couple small schools you’ve never heard of and some Ivies. Meh. But how did New York schools stack up? And arts programs? And party schools? Payscale’s fun, interactive report lets you figure out precisely how poor you will be in 20 years, based on the college and major you chose when you were seventeen.
The fifth annual study takes into account the four-year cost of the university and tracks students’ return on interest (ROI) over the course of 20 years, then uses the data to forecast future incomes. Turns out, graduates of Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, California are the richiest of richies:
But like any good web-based data project nowadays, Payscale allows users to fiddle with the data to their hearts’ content. Below, some results of that fiddling.
20-year ROIs among New York schools:
20-year ROIs for Arts majors:
20-year ROIs for English & Humanities majors at “party schools”:
You can go play with the data here.
Follow Rebecca Jennings on Twitter @rebexxxxa.