Private colleges tend to be more expensive than public schools in the U.S., but they can also deliver a significant return on investment.
Princeton University delivers the best ROI among private colleges in the U.S., according to The Princeton Review’s latest rankings. (The Princeton Review is not associated with Princeton University.) The publication considered financial aid, academic rigor and admissions selectivity, as well as overall costs after aid, to determine the colleges that deliver the best value.
For the 2025-26 academic year, tuition at Princeton comes with a sticker price of $65,210, according to the school’s website. But students receiving financial aid pay an average of just $10,555 a year, and go on to earn a median income of over $110,000 a year a decade after attending, according to the most recent data from the Department of Education.
By comparison, students at Georgia Institute of Technology, the public college with the best ROI per Princeton Review, pay a higher average net price of $13,289 and earn less, a median of $102,772. Many of the best-value public colleges have lower sticker and average net prices than the private schools, but earnings fall short of private school grads’ incomes.
