Ivy Leagues Offer a Better Return on Investment Than Other Schools

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An Ivy League education really does pay off, it seems.

The eight Ivies have a better return on investment than many other nonprofit four-year colleges, Bloomberg reported on Friday. The elite institutions have a typical 10-year ROI of $265,500, an analysis by the outlet shows. That’s twice the return of 63 “Hidden Ivies”—other top private colleges—and almost three times the median of all other schools included in Bloomberg’s research.

To get these numbers, Bloomberg used data from Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce. Notably, it doesn’t include students who paid full price to attend school. Rather, the data encompass those who got some financial aid from their university. For that group, the average Ivy alum earns $90,500 a year, according to Bloomberg, while those who went to a Hidden Ivy earn $72,600 a year. Plus, Ivy grads paid 18 percent less than Hidden Ivy grads.

So, which Ivy gets you the most bang for your buck? Princeton tops the list when it comes to return on investment (which is measured here as the net present value of earnings 10 years after enrollment minus the average price paid after financial aid). At the New Jersey school, ROI comes in at an impressive $340,000. Moving down the list, you have the University of Pennsylvania with a $280,000 ROI and Harvard with a $275,000 ROI.

Closely following those top three schools are Yale with a $267,000 ROI and Columbia with $264,000. Cornell, Dartmouth, and Brown round out the list with slightly lower totals: $190,000 for Cornell, $183,000 for Dartmouth, and $172,000 for Brown.

Notably, Princeton also features the lowest net price per year, at just $9,836—the only four-figure amount on the list. The next lowest is Harvard at $13,872, while most other institutions sit between $20,000 to $40,000. And if it’s highest median earnings you’re after, look to Penn: At $103,246, it’s the only school with a six-figure salary. Princeton comes in second with $95,698 a year, while grads from the other Ivies earn salaries in the $80,000s and $90,000s.

The data give a little boost to those who believe that an Ivy League education sets students up for success. Given these numbers, they certainly seem like they’ll do well in the financial realm.