Best Value Colleges - Optimal Choice
By the GradReports team | Updated 11/2/2021
Our Optimal Choice list highlights the best value colleges for students that offer high salaries and low tuition. We researched salary and tuition information for over 1,782 colleges to find the schools that produce alumni who earn high salaries without the high price tag. We determine alumni earnings based on a ranking system that investigates alumni salaries by program, called Salary Score. See our methodology for additional information.
Key Insights
- Over 85% of Optimal Choice colleges are public schools.
- Of the private non-profit schools on the Optimal Choice list, over 75% are primarily online.
- The top-ranked school based on our Salary Score is Thomas Edison State University, a primarily online college that costs less than $8,000 a year, just ahead of UC-Berkeley.
Optimal Choice Colleges
111 Colleges that Offer High Alumni Salaries and Low Tuition
| | | |
|---|
| Thomas Edison State University | Trenton (NJ) | $7,926 | 94.20 |
| University of California - Berkeley | Berkeley (CA) | $14,253 | 93.80 |
| Capella University | Minneapolis (MN) | $14,540 | 90.97 |
| California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo | San Luis Obispo (CA) | $9,943 | 90.16 |
| American Public University System | Charles Town (WV) | $7,324 | 89.54 |
| The College of New Jersey | Ewing (NJ) | $16,923 | 89.07 |
| Colorado State University Global | Greenwood Village (CO) | $8,400 | 88.90 |
| California State University - East Bay | Hayward (CA) | $7,000 | 88.36 |
| National University | La Jolla (CA) | $13,320 | 87.96 |
| San Jose State University | San Jose (CA) | $7,852 | 87.70 |
| Linfield University - Online and Continuing Education | McMinnville (OR) | $13,365 | 86.63 |
| Georgia Institute of Technology | Atlanta (GA) | $12,682 | 86.35 |
| University of Maryland - College Park | College Park (MD) | $10,779 | 86.24 |
| UMass Global | Multiple Locations | $12,440 | 86.04 |
| University of Maryland Global Campus | Adelphi (MD) | $7,560 | 85.66 |
WHY TRUST US?
2,200
Colleges with a Salary Score™
70,000
Student Reviews
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Data Researchers
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Hours Spent on Research Annually
The Optimal Choice for College: Go Public, or Go Online
Optimal sought to discover the schools that lead to a relatively high Salary Score for alumni at relatively low cost. Our research revealed that most of the best value colleges that met our criteria are public schools. As long as you qualify for in-state tuition, it's worth considering the public colleges in your state with the highest Salary Score: Lower upfront costs mean lower student loans, which leads to less student debt in the future.
Attending college online may be another cost-saving option when pursuing higher education. For example, private schools sometimes charge online students less, while public colleges often charge distance learners the in-state rate regardless of their residency. Importantly, many schools with a high Salary Score offer online degree programs, while others on the list are fully online.
Almost 86% of colleges on our Optimal Choice list are public. This finding is notable because Optimal has tuition and salary data for nearly double the amount of private schools as compared to public, so the total number is skewed toward private colleges. Public schools just happened to have better overall results based on our analysis of cost and salary outcomes. In addition, most of the private Optimal Choice schools are non-profit. In fact, only 3.6% of all schools on the list are for-profit.
Almost all private colleges on the rankings list have a significant online presence. Approximately 75% of the institutions listed are primarily online, meaning that they offer more than half their classes virtually.
The Top Schools for Salary Score™
In general, private schools tend to lead to higher alumni salaries. However, Optimal Choice schools control for cost in addition to Salary Score. To rank as an Optimal Choice institution, a school must have below-average tuition. Only two of the top five Optimal Choice schools with the highest Salary Score values are private. In addition, three of the top five are primarily online institutions: Thomas Edison State University, Capella University, and American Public University System.
Thomas Edison State University
Trenton (NJ)
This primarily online institution has a higher Salary Score than the more widely known school, UC Berkeley. TESU has a Salary Score of 100 for its interdisciplinary programs, including its online bachelor's in liberal studies. The university also prepares healthcare students for relatively high-paying jobs. For example, their alumni in health-related and nursing professions enjoy scores of 99 and 92, respectively. TESU's overall Salary Score of 94.23 is nearly identical to that of Columbia University in New York, but Columbia's tuition rate is almost eight times higher.
University of California - Berkeley
Berkeley (CA)
Close behind TESU is UC Berkeley, a prestigious public school with a similar Salary Score to the University of Notre Dame. The university offers a variety of bachelor's degrees, and five of these disciplines score 100: business administration and management, communication and media studies, computer science, electrical engineering, and urban studies. Berkeley alumni likely earn high salaries because many choose to continue living in the San Francisco Bay Area after graduation. Since this area has one of the highest costs of living in the country, employers pay well to attract qualified employees.
Capella University
Minneapolis (MN)
Capella is the first of two for-profit online schools among the top five best colleges for Salary Score. Capella's score of 90.97 places it between private universities, such as the University of Chicago and Vanderbilt, which cost $37,500-46,000 more per year in tuition. Capella’s high-scoring programs are bachelor's degrees in information technology, computer science, and business, which each score a 98 or above.
California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo
San Luis Obispo (CA)
Cal Poly is a public school that features tuition costs in the lower 20th percentile nationwide for students with in-state residency. Cal Poly ranks slightly above Washington University in St. Louis with a Salary Score of 90.16. This overall score is boosted by program scores of 100 in business administration and management, computer science, natural resource conservation, parks and recreation management, and fine arts.
American Public University System
Charles Town (WV)
Despite its name, APUS is a private, for-profit institution with a higher Salary Score than New York University. APUS markets heavily to active-duty service members and veterans. In fact, only 15% of the student body has no military affiliation, which is reflected in the university's program offerings and their alumni's career paths. APUS earned Salary Scores of 100 for its bachelor's degrees in criminal justice, physical education and fitness, history, international studies, and liberal arts.
The Top Schools With the Most Affordable Tuition
Among the Optimal Choice schools with the lowest tuition rates, four of the top five are public. The one private school on the list, Western Governors University, is a non-profit institution. Our Salary Score for the five schools on this list don't correlate neatly with their tuition rates. For example, the University of Houston-Downtown has the highest tuition and lowest Salary Score of these five, but the next most affordable college has the highest score by a fair margin.
Utah Valley University
Orem (UT)
Utah Valley has the lowest annual tuition of any public school on the Optimal Choice list at $5,820. It also ranks in the lowest 12th percentile for tuition nationwide. The university's highest scoring programs include air transportation, business, criminal justice, and philosophy. Utah Valley's Salary Score of 67.4 is especially strong for alumni who work nearby after graduating. Given that the cost of living in Utah is somewhat low, wages can stretch further than they would in more expensive states.
University of the District of Columbia
Washington D.C.
UDC is a historically Black university (HBCU) and the only public university in the District of Columbia. As an HBCU affiliated with the Thurgood Marshall College Fund, Black UDC students can access a range of financial aid options to help fund their degrees. UDC's Salary Score of 77.52 is slightly above the University of Texas Permian Basin, the next most affordable Optimal Choice college. Two UDC programs earned Salary Scores of 100: (1) psychology and (2) human development and family studies.
The University of Texas Permian Basin
Odessa (TX)
UTPB is the second member (out of three) in the University of Texas system represented on the Optimal Choice list, and it has the lowest tuition. The university is perhaps best known for its engineering degrees, such as its petroleum engineering program, which earned a Salary Score of 90. However, graduates of other UTPB programs earned even higher relative salaries in their fields, including human development and family studies, English, sociology, and psychology.
Western Governors University
Salt Lake City (UT)
WGU is the only fully online school among the five most affordable Optimal Choice colleges. Although it's a private non-profit university, its tuition rate is in the lowest 14th percentile of U.S. schools. It also features a Salary Score of 82.02, placing it higher than the University of Michigan. WGU's highest-scoring disciplines include sales and marketing, business administration and management, and health and medical preparatory degrees.
University of Houston - Downtown
Houston (TX)
This university rounds out the list of most affordable Optimal Choice colleges. Its tuition is only about $100 more per year than WGU, which also places it in the lowest 14th percentile of tuition rates nationwide. UHD's top-scoring degree programs are unique among the most affordable Optimal Choice schools: rhetoric and composition earns a Salary Score of 99 and marketing earns a 95.
How Does Average Public Tuition Compare to Average Private Tuition?
On average, private non-profit schools charge more than three times the public tuition rate for in-state residents. This difference leads to an average cost disparity of $88,000 over the course of a four-year degree. For-profit schools fall in the middle, meaning they tend to be more expensive than public colleges but significantly cheaper than private non-profit schools. Importantly, out-of-state tuition at public schools can also be expensive, so it's worth investigating schools where you can secure in-state residency to lower the tuition rate.
The Optimal Choice list contains so many public institutions because their relative affordability satisfies one of the criteria for inclusion. There are also many public colleges with an advantageous overall Salary Score and for a number of individual programs. If you're attracted to the combination of low cost and strong salary outcomes, you may want to consider a public Optimal Choice college where you'll be eligible for an in-state tuition rate.