The UCs are a better investment than most U.S. colleges. See data on every school

Californians are fortunate to have access to some of the best public universities in the country when it comes to the financial return on investment.

According to an analysis by Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce, attending a University of California and California State University campus yields a higher short-term return on investment than a non-California public university by $78,000 and $57,000, respectively.

The researchers used data on attendance costs and post-college earnings to estimate the monetary return of attending each higher education institution in the country. Specifically, they estimated the median total income 10 years after college enrollment and subtracted the average attendance cost — which includes tuition, fees and living expenses and accounts for federal financial aid. The tuition data reflects only in-state tuition for public universities, though in reality costs can differ by thousands of dollars between in-state and out-of-state students.