Dive Brief:

• Payscale has released its annual return-on-investment ranking of 1,300 U.S. colleges and universities, calculating the potential financial return of attending each school by using the cost of tuition and the payoff in median lifetime earnings for a graduate.
• The top three schools in the overall ranking: Harvey Mudd College, with an annual ROI of 8.8%,  California Institute of Technology at 8.3%, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology at 8.2%.
• The bottom school: Shaw University, ranked 1,312th, with an annual ROI of less than -11.9%.

Dive Insight:

This is an interesting conversation starter about the value and costs of higher education. Payscale breaks out ranking lists by state, category, and major. A page for each school lists alumni salaries broken down in several categories, including employer, major, and job type. The rankings also calculate an adjusted ROI for each school when financial aid is factored in. Many of the top schools in the overall rankings are engineering schools.