Clemson Ranks High In Return-On-College-Investment Survey

SmartMoney Magazine has ranked Clemson University No. 7 on its list of 50 of the nation’s top colleges and universities whose graduates get the best return on their tuition dollars.

Clemson ranked higher than all of the Ivy League schools and higher than some of the public universities that typically are at the top of the U.S.News & World Report rankings. It also was the only South Carolina university included.

The annual “payback” survey, “Which colleges help grads snag top salaries?” is online at The Wall Street Journal, the magazine's publisher. It examined 50 schools at the high end of the cost spectrum based on out-of-state tuition rates: the eight Ivy League colleges, other private schools and public universities. 

With help from the compensation-data company PayScale, the magazine collected median pay figures for the schools’ recent graduates as well as mid-career alumni. The return-on-investment, or “payback” ratio, was based on the assumption that all the graduates paid full out-of-state tuition rates and not lower in-state tuition.

It does not take into account financial aid, such as South Carolina’s Palmetto Fellows and LIFE scholarships.

“This survey merely confirms what our alumni already know: a Clemson degree pays for itself many times over, not only in terms of dollars, but in terms of professional opportunities and career advancement,” said Neil Burton, executive director of the Michelin Career Center and Cooperative Education Program at Clemson. “The return on investment is very high, especially for in-state students.”