Accessible Colleges With Strong Graduate Earnings
You do not have to get into an elite school to earn well. This ranking looks at four-year colleges that admit at least 60% of applicants and sorts them by median earnings four years after graduates finish, to show where accessible admission meets strong results.
We reviewed 998 four-year colleges with at least 500 undergraduates and an acceptance rate of 60% or higher, and list the top 50. The median earnings figure is $59,776, the best is $108,757, and the school in 50th place is at $81,163. Cal Poly Maritime Academy ranks first, and New York has the most entries with 11. The median acceptance rate of all qualifiers is 82%.
High earnings often reflect programs in engineering, nursing or maritime fields and local labor markets rather than the whole school. Open a profile to see earnings by field and compare them with your intended major.
If you are worried about admission odds, this list is a useful shortlist of schools where acceptance is likely and earnings are still strong, though program choice matters a great deal.
How this list is built
A college appears here only if it meets every condition below.
- Colleges considered
- All 4-year colleges (public, private nonprofit and for-profit)
- Ranked by earnings after 4 years, highest first. Ties are broken by larger undergraduate enrollment, then by name.
- Main campuses only, with at least 60% of core data fields reported
- At least 500 undergraduate students enrolled (fall 2024)
- Acceptance rate of 60% or higher (open-admission schools are excluded)
- A reported earnings after 4 years value (schools without one are not ranked)
- Data period
- Earnings: median earnings four years after completing, measured in 2022 and 2023 for the 2017-18 and 2018-19 cohorts, in 2024 dollars.
- Acceptance rate: fall 2024 applicants admitted.
- Net price: average for students receiving aid, academic year 2023-24.
- Graduation rate: first-time, full-time students who started in fall 2018 (4-year) or fall 2021 (2-year), finishing within 150% of normal time.
- Graduate debt: median federal loan debt of completers, pooled 2020 and 2021 cohorts.
- Source: U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard, June 2026 release.
Showing the top 50 of 998 qualifying schools. Select a column heading to re-sort the table.
| 1 | Cal Poly Maritime Academy Vallejo, CA Public · 4-year | $108,757 | 95% | $20,555 | 63% | $24,965 |
| 2 | Worcester Polytechnic Institute Worcester, MA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $105,724 | 60% | $43,071 | 89% | $27,000 |
| 3 | SUNY Maritime College Throggs Neck, NY Public · 4-year | $104,752 | 72% | $22,367 | 70% | $23,250 |
| 4 | Massachusetts Maritime Academy Buzzards Bay, MA Public · 4-year | $103,680 | 95% | $21,582 | 77% | $25,000 |
| 5 | Colorado School of Mines Golden, CO Public · 4-year | $100,252 | 61% | $28,690 | 81% | $23,000 |
| 6 | Kettering University Flint, MI Private nonprofit · 4-year | $99,943 | 79% | $34,660 | 71% | $27,000 |
| 7 | Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Troy, NY Private nonprofit · 4-year | $98,311 | 63% | $36,228 | 83% | $23,750 |
| 8 | Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology Terre Haute, IN Private nonprofit · 4-year | $97,780 | 77% | $42,513 | 80% | $25,000 |
| 9 | Chamberlain University-Illinois Addison, IL For-profit · 4-year | $97,262 | 83% | $31,837 | 45% | $20,919 |
| 10 | Molloy University Rockville Centre, NY Private nonprofit · 4-year · Hispanic-Serving | $96,058 | 82% | $24,347 | 71% | $27,000 |
| 11 | Dominican University of California San Rafael, CA Private nonprofit · 4-year · Hispanic-Serving | $95,437 | 84% | $35,333 | 77% | $27,000 |
| 12 | Southern Methodist University Dallas, TX Private nonprofit · 4-year | $95,051 | 63% | $40,892 | 84% | $19,500 |
| 13 | Wentworth Institute of Technology Boston, MA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $95,027 | 91% | $34,170 | 68% | $25,028 |
| 14 | Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University-Daytona Beach Daytona Beach, FL Private nonprofit · 4-year | $93,582 | 65% | $41,272 | 67% | $23,666 |
| 15 | Missouri University of Science and Technology Rolla, MO Public · 4-year | $93,514 | 73% | $16,298 | 64% | $23,250 |
| 16 | DigiPen Institute of Technology Redmond, WA For-profit · 4-year | $93,273 | 64% | $44,446 | 56% | $27,000 |
| 17 | Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences Boston, MA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $93,192 | 85% | $39,545 | 63% | $25,000 |
| 18 | New Jersey Institute of Technology Newark, NJ Public · 4-year · Hispanic-Serving | $91,874 | 65% | $16,504 | 73% | $21,000 |
| 19 | University of San Francisco San Francisco, CA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $91,483 | 62% | $41,431 | 71% | $23,000 |
| 20 | Clarkson University Potsdam, NY Private nonprofit · 4-year | $91,312 | 77% | $30,305 | 74% | $26,000 |
| 21 | Drexel University Philadelphia, PA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $91,041 | 79% | $38,509 | 78% | $25,325 |
| 22 | Bryant University Smithfield, RI Private nonprofit · 4-year | $90,592 | 65% | $41,219 | 80% | $26,849 |
| 23 | San Jose State University San Jose, CA Public · 4-year · Hispanic-Serving | $89,614 | 85% | $13,760 | 67% | $15,000 |
| 24 | Gwynedd Mercy University Gwynedd Valley, PA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $89,170 | 90% | $27,483 | 58% | $25,000 |
| 25 | Manhattan University Riverdale, NY Private nonprofit · 4-year · Hispanic-Serving | $88,328 | 79% | $27,256 | 65% | $26,000 |
| 26 | South Dakota School of Mines and Technology Rapid City, SD Public · 4-year | $87,878 | 80% | $20,183 | 56% | $27,000 |
| 27 | Thomas Jefferson University Philadelphia, PA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $87,195 | 81% | $28,928 | 68% | $14,744 |
| 28 | Oregon Institute of Technology Klamath Falls, OR Public · 4-year | $87,138 | 95% | $15,706 | 56% | $22,500 |
| 29 | Wagner College Staten Island, NY Private nonprofit · 4-year | $85,313 | 88% | $28,241 | 67% | $25,000 |
| 30 | Maryville University of Saint Louis Saint Louis, MO Private nonprofit · 4-year | $84,871 | 95% | $22,066 | 69% | $22,000 |
| 31 | Regis College Weston, MA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $84,660 | 70% | $27,477 | 71% | $25,500 |
| 32 | Michigan Technological University Houghton, MI Public · 4-year | $84,560 | 92% | $14,182 | 68% | $24,990 |
| 33 | Pepperdine University Malibu, CA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $84,459 | 63% | $58,098 | 84% | $23,510 |
| 34 | Quinnipiac University Hamden, CT Private nonprofit · 4-year | $84,363 | 72% | $40,675 | 77% | $26,000 |
| 35 | D'Youville University Buffalo, NY Private nonprofit · 4-year | $84,182 | 81% | $20,433 | 62% | $25,000 |
| 36 | Rochester Institute of Technology Rochester, NY Private nonprofit · 4-year | $84,133 | 67% | $34,906 | 70% | $26,778 |
| 37 | Saint Joseph's University - Philadelphia Philadelphia, PA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $84,010 | 89% | $29,689 | 79% | $25,500 |
| 38 | University of Mount Saint Vincent Bronx, NY Private nonprofit · 4-year · Hispanic-Serving | $83,648 | 85% | $21,696 | 57% | $25,000 |
| 39 | Concordia University-Irvine Irvine, CA Private nonprofit · 4-year · Hispanic-Serving | $83,064 | 66% | $28,115 | 60% | $24,247 |
| 40 | Adelphi University Garden City, NY Private nonprofit · 4-year | $83,002 | 66% | $30,783 | 68% | $25,000 |
| 41 | Holy Family University Philadelphia, PA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $82,892 | 71% | $13,143 | 61% | $25,125 |
| 42 | University of St Thomas (MN) Saint Paul, MN Private nonprofit · 4-year | $82,136 | 85% | $29,155 | 76% | $23,250 |
| 43 | University of the Pacific Stockton, CA Private nonprofit · 4-year · Hispanic-Serving | $81,820 | 71% | $25,447 | 68% | $19,500 |
| 44 | Regis University Denver, CO Private nonprofit · 4-year · Hispanic-Serving | $81,785 | 86% | $18,397 | 61% | $25,000 |
| 45 | Loyola University Maryland Baltimore, MD Private nonprofit · 4-year | $81,772 | 75% | $30,574 | 80% | $27,000 |
| 46 | Nova Southeastern University Fort Lauderdale, FL Private nonprofit · 4-year · Hispanic-Serving | $81,582 | 73% | $30,371 | 64% | $24,250 |
| 47 | New York Institute of Technology Old Westbury, NY Private nonprofit · 4-year · Hispanic-Serving | $81,370 | 81% | $22,443 | 58% | $23,334 |
| 48 | Linfield University McMinnville, OR Private nonprofit · 4-year | $81,180 | 85% | $26,536 | 68% | $25,000 |
| 49 | Creighton University Omaha, NE Private nonprofit · 4-year | $81,178 | 80% | $31,568 | 82% | $25,000 |
| 50 | University of Massachusetts-Lowell Lowell, MA Public · 4-year | $81,163 | 83% | $17,163 | 67% | $23,704 |
States with schools on this list
Browse every college in these states.