What’s Your College Worth?

Four years of boozy Thursday nights and shock-inducing finals seem well worth the cost of college tuition. But in the midst of a recession, quantifying the long-term value of a college education just became a priority. SmartMoney has ranked the best colleges by comparing the cost of tuition with students’ median salaries three and five years post-graduation, the result of which is a school’s “payback” ratio. The University of Georgia is the top public school; Washington and Lee snatches the top Liberal Arts post; and all hail Princeton as the top Ivy with a payback of 132 percent.