Colleges With the Highest Graduate Salaries
Few numbers draw more attention than what graduates earn. This ranking sorts four-year colleges by median earnings of former students four years after they completed a degree, adjusted to 2024 dollars, using tax records from the U.S. Treasury as published in the College Scorecard.
We ranked 1,546 four-year colleges with at least 500 undergraduates and a reported earnings figure and show the top 50. The median across all of them is $59,403, the top figure is $161,961 and the school in 50th place is at $95,967. Massachusetts Institute of Technology ranks first. Massachusetts has the most entries with 9. The median net price of qualifying schools is $19,484.
High earnings partly reflect who enrolls and which majors are popular, not only what a school adds. Compare earnings with net price and debt on the profile, and remember that earnings four years after completion are early in a career.
To judge whether high pay is worth the price, check the net price and debt columns here and the payback ranking, and compare earnings for your own major on each profile.
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)
- 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.
- Net price: average for students receiving aid, academic year 2023-24.
- Graduate debt: median federal loan debt of completers, pooled 2020 and 2021 cohorts.
- 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.
- Acceptance rate: fall 2024 applicants admitted.
- Source: U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard, June 2026 release.
Showing the top 50 of 1,546 qualifying schools. Select a column heading to re-sort the table.
| 1 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge, MA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $161,961 | $20,111 | $14,768 | 96% | 5% |
| 2 | California Institute of Technology Pasadena, CA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $152,843 | $16,075 | — | 94% | 3% |
| 3 | Harvey Mudd College Claremont, CA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $137,100 | $35,924 | $25,000 | 93% | 13% |
| 4 | Stanford University Stanford, CA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $136,959 | $13,807 | $12,000 | 92% | 4% |
| 5 | Harvard University Cambridge, MA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $134,794 | $19,066 | $14,000 | 97% | 4% |
| 6 | Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh, PA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $132,971 | $31,944 | $21,750 | 93% | 12% |
| 7 | University of Chicago Chicago, IL Private nonprofit · 4-year | $127,757 | $14,860 | $15,000 | 95% | 4% |
| 8 | University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, PA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $124,586 | $28,699 | $15,715 | 97% | 5% |
| 9 | Georgetown University Washington, DC Private nonprofit · 4-year | $119,773 | $40,815 | $15,500 | 95% | 13% |
| 10 | Georgia Institute of Technology-Main Campus Atlanta, GA Public · 4-year | $119,180 | $12,116 | $21,672 | 93% | 14% |
| 11 | Babson College Wellesley, MA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $117,794 | $40,514 | $20,000 | 93% | 17% |
| 12 | Johns Hopkins University Baltimore, MD Private nonprofit · 4-year | $117,419 | $18,809 | $10,250 | 94% | 6% |
| 13 | Helene Fuld College of Nursing New York, NY Private nonprofit · 4-year | $117,149 | $47,181 | $15,250 | — | 17% |
| 14 | Duke University Durham, NC Private nonprofit · 4-year | $115,722 | $29,612 | $13,000 | 96% | 6% |
| 15 | Columbia University in the City of New York New York, NY Private nonprofit · 4-year | $115,519 | $21,590 | $21,500 | 96% | 4% |
| 16 | Cornell University Ithaca, NY Private nonprofit · 4-year | $113,372 | $28,690 | $14,000 | 95% | 9% |
| 17 | Maine Maritime Academy Castine, ME Public · 4-year | $113,298 | $23,414 | $27,000 | 60% | 54% |
| 18 | Yale University New Haven, CT Private nonprofit · 4-year | $112,971 | $23,777 | $12,975 | 96% | 4% |
| 19 | Stevens Institute of Technology Hoboken, NJ Private nonprofit · 4-year | $112,538 | $41,346 | $27,000 | 88% | 48% |
| 20 | Dartmouth College Hanover, NH Private nonprofit · 4-year | $111,883 | $29,519 | $17,500 | 96% | 5% |
| 21 | Claremont McKenna College Claremont, CA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $110,798 | $28,849 | $13,500 | 93% | 10% |
| 22 | West Coast University-Texas Richardson, TX For-profit · 4-year · Open admission | $110,100 | $53,020 | $32,946 | 47% | — |
| 23 | Rice University Houston, TX Private nonprofit · 4-year | $110,080 | $13,370 | $11,000 | 95% | 8% |
| 24 | Northwestern University Evanston, IL Private nonprofit · 4-year | $109,275 | $29,167 | $15,000 | 96% | 8% |
| 25 | Cal Poly Maritime Academy Vallejo, CA Public · 4-year | $108,757 | $20,555 | $24,965 | 63% | 95% |
| 26 | Princeton University Princeton, NJ Private nonprofit · 4-year | $108,590 | $6,128 | $10,320 | 97% | 5% |
| 27 | Bentley University Waltham, MA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $108,577 | $37,930 | $25,023 | 88% | 45% |
| 28 | Santa Clara University Santa Clara, CA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $108,517 | $50,062 | $19,162 | 88% | 48% |
| 29 | Worcester Polytechnic Institute Worcester, MA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $105,724 | $43,071 | $27,000 | 89% | 60% |
| 30 | SUNY Maritime College Throggs Neck, NY Public · 4-year | $104,752 | $22,367 | $23,250 | 70% | 72% |
| 31 | Villanova University Villanova, PA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $104,228 | $43,756 | $25,874 | 92% | 27% |
| 32 | Massachusetts Maritime Academy Buzzards Bay, MA Public · 4-year | $103,680 | $21,582 | $25,000 | 77% | 95% |
| 33 | Northeastern University Boston, MA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $101,903 | $30,915 | $24,250 | 90% | 5% |
| 34 | Lehigh University Bethlehem, PA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $101,748 | $36,931 | $21,960 | 89% | 26% |
| 35 | Vanderbilt University Nashville, TN Private nonprofit · 4-year | $101,204 | $15,846 | $14,000 | 93% | 6% |
| 36 | University of Notre Dame Notre Dame, IN Private nonprofit · 4-year | $100,684 | $26,780 | $19,000 | 96% | 11% |
| 37 | Washington and Lee University Lexington, VA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $100,514 | $23,781 | $19,500 | 94% | 14% |
| 38 | Colorado School of Mines Golden, CO Public · 4-year | $100,252 | $28,690 | $23,000 | 81% | 61% |
| 39 | Career Networks Institute Santa Ana, CA For-profit · 4-year · Open admission | $99,952 | $49,677 | $25,899 | 83% | — |
| 40 | Kettering University Flint, MI Private nonprofit · 4-year | $99,943 | $34,660 | $27,000 | 71% | 79% |
| 41 | Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Troy, NY Private nonprofit · 4-year | $98,311 | $36,228 | $23,750 | 83% | 63% |
| 42 | Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology Terre Haute, IN Private nonprofit · 4-year | $97,780 | $42,513 | $25,000 | 80% | 77% |
| 43 | Tufts University Medford, MA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $97,474 | $39,998 | $16,250 | 93% | 11% |
| 44 | Chamberlain University-Illinois Addison, IL For-profit · 4-year | $97,262 | $31,837 | $20,919 | 45% | 83% |
| 45 | University of Michigan-Ann Arbor Ann Arbor, MI Public · 4-year | $96,159 | $13,138 | $19,500 | 93% | 16% |
| 46 | Boston College Chestnut Hill, MA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $96,145 | $41,704 | $19,000 | 91% | 16% |
| 47 | Molloy University Rockville Centre, NY Private nonprofit · 4-year · Hispanic-Serving | $96,058 | $24,347 | $27,000 | 71% | 82% |
| 48 | Bucknell University Lewisburg, PA Private nonprofit · 4-year | $96,035 | $40,766 | $27,000 | 86% | 29% |
| 49 | University of California-Berkeley Berkeley, CA Public · 4-year | $96,018 | $13,481 | $13,000 | 93% | 11% |
| 50 | George Washington University Washington, DC Private nonprofit · 4-year | $95,967 | $36,586 | $20,449 | 85% | 47% |
By state
State versions of this ranking:
Highest graduate earnings, by state
States with schools on this list
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