Private Schools - Return on Investment


Special Report: For Business Students, an Uncertain Future

Slide Show:The Top Undergraduate Business Programs

To determine which undergraduate business programs give students the biggest return on their tuition dollar, we compared annual tuition costs at each of our top 50 undergraduate b-schools with median starting salaries for graduates. Overall, public universities with their lower tuition did far better than elite private schools, averaging $5.98 in pay for every tuition dollar spent, compared to $1.87 for the privates. Brigham Young—with tuition costs that are a sliver of what most elite schools charge—topped the list of privates, generating more than $12 in salary for every dollar spent. Below is our ROI ranking for 32 private schools.


Click column heading once to reorder from highest to lowest. Click twice to reorder from lowest to highest.
ROI
Rank
Overall
2009 BW
Rank
School
Annual Tuition
& Fees
($)
Median Salary
($)
Salary
Per Annual
Tuition Dollar
($)
1 5 Brigham Young (Marriott)
Provo, Utah		4,11050,00012.17 
2 8 Cornell
Ithaca, N.Y.		20,36455,0002.70 
3 34 Texas Christian (Neeley)
Fort Worth		28,25050,0001.77 
4 45 Baylor (Hankamer)
Waco, Tex.		26,08445,0001.73 
5 7 MIT (Sloan)
Cambridge, Mass.		36,39060,0001.65 
6 3 Pennsylvania (Wharton)
Philadelphia		37,52661,0011.63 
7 27 Northeastern
Boston		33,96955,0001.62 
8 24 Georgetown (McDonough)
Washington, D.C.		38,12260,0001.57 
9 41 Fordham
New York		35,25755,0001.56 
10 15 NYU (Stern)
New York		38,68659,5001.54 
11 16 Washington U. (Olin)
St. Louis		37,24856,5001.52 
11 28 American (Kogod)
Washington, D.C.		33,28350,7051.52 
11 31 SMU (Cox)
Dallas		33,17050,4001.52 
11 33 Bentley
Waltham, Mass.		34,48852,5001.52 
11 39 Case Western (Weatherhead)
Cleveland, Ohio		34,45052,5001.52 
16 9 Emory (Goizueta)
Atlanta		36,33655,0001.51 
16 19 Carnegie Mellon (Tepper)
Pittsburgh		39,75460,0001.51 
18 49 Syracuse (Whitman)
Syracuse, N.Y.		35,39853,0001.50 
19 2 Notre Dame (Mendoza)
South Bend, Ind.		36,84755,0001.49 
20 17 Boston College (Carroll)
Boston		37,41055,0001.47 
21 26 Lehigh
Bethlehem, Pa.		37,55055,0001.46 
21 29 San Diego
San Diego, Calif.		34,26450,0001.46 
23 32 Santa Clara
Santa Clara, Calif.		34,95050,5001.44 
24 21 USC (Marshall)
Los Angeles		37,69453,0001.41 
25 11 Villanova
Villanova, Pa.		37,53052,0001.39 
25 23 Babson
Babson Park, Mass.		36,09650,0001.39 
27 14 Wake Forest (Calloway)
Winston-Salem, N.C.		36,97551,0001.38 
27 46 Chapman (Argyros)
Orange, Calif.		34,70048,0001.38 
29 50 U. of Miami
Coral Gables, Fla.		36,83650,0001.36 
30 12 Richmond (Robins)
Richmond, Va.		38,85052,5001.35 
30 43 Boston U.
Boston		37,05050,0001.35 
32 36 Rensselaer Polytech (Lally)
Troy, N.Y.		37,90050,0001.32 

Top 50 Private School Average: 34,298 53,222 1.87

Note: Tuition fees shown for Brigham Young are for members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints only; all others are charged more. Cornell is listed among the private schools because the university is private, even though the business program is in a state-assisted portion of the school.