- As Gen Z increasingly wonders whether a diploma is worth the debt, LinkedIn says the real test of a school is its career pay-off and ROI. The platform’s newest list of the top 50 colleges crowns Princeton University, Duke University and the University of Pennsylvania as the top institutions for “long-term career success.” Smaller and lesser-known schools can also be hidden gems for young people seeking a fast track to the C-suite or building the next billion-dollar start-up.
Millions of college students are headed back to school in the coming weeks, but the excitement of new classes, reconnecting with friends, and fall weather is being overshadowed by a cloud of uncertainty.
With many recent graduates struggling like never before to land jobs—and some CEOs warning entry-level jobs are on the brink of extinction thanks to AI—Gen Z is left questioning whether spending four years and thousands of dollars on a degree will be well worth it. And ultimately, the answer may come down to where you obtained your degree.
Graduates from Princeton University, Duke University, and the University of Pennsylvania are most likely to experience long-term career success, according to a list of the top 50 U.S. colleges released by LinkedIn this week.
With indications that higher education payoff is slowly dying, it’s more important now than ever to weigh up after-college career results and the likely ROI of a degree, says Andrew Seaman, senior editor-at-large for jobs and career development at LinkedIn News.
“Long-term success isn’t just about landing a great first job, it’s about sustained career growth and opportunity years after graduation,” Seaman tells Fortune. “For this list, that means looking at how well a school sets alumni up for the long haul.”
Whereas the median annual salary for high school graduates was $48,360 in 2024, those with a bachelor’s degree typically earn just over $80,000—about a 65% increase, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cornell University, and Harvard University round out the top six best colleges, but other typically elite schools are much further down the list. Ivy League institutions Columbia University and Yale University, are No. 18 and 19, respectively. (See the full list below).
Getting a degree from a popular school might not be enough
LinkedIn produced its ranking using five equally weighted pillars:
- Job placement: Percentage of alumni from recent graduate cohorts (2019-2024) who started a full-time position or a graduate school program within the same year of graduating.
- Internships and recruit demand: Percentage of alumni from recent cohorts who completed an undergraduate internship; and labor market demand for recent cohorts, based on InMail outreach data.
- Career success: Percentage of alumni with post-graduate entrepreneurship or C-suite experience.
- Networth strength: How connected alumni of the same school are to each other, as well as how connected alumni from recent cohorts are to all past alumni and current students
- Knowledge breadth: Unique fields of study and skills gained by recent graduates.
Focusing on these data points, LinkedIn produced a ranking that saw many well-known schools absent, such as Johns Hopkins University, Emory University, Georgia Tech, and the University of North Carolina. Instead, some institutions with lesser name-recognition made the top-50 cut, such as Bentley University (No. 15), Bucknell University (No. 21), and Fairfield University (No. 28).
The findings overall signal that a popular or Ivy League name isn’t needed to deliver exceptional career outcomes, Seaman says.
“Schools like Bentley University and Fairfield University are excelling at connecting students with high-quality internships, building strong alumni networks, and helping graduates secure jobs or graduate school placements quickly, all factors that drive long-term career success,” Seaman adds.
Among Bucknell’s class of 2024, 93% of students secured career opportunities within nine months of graduation, earning an average starting salary of $73,075.
Smaller colleges, such as Babson College and Colgate University, were also standouts in terms of network strength and job placement. Babson in particular has the highest percentage of graduates who have become entrepreneurs and founders, according to Seaman.
The growing need for AI skills
As the value of college continues to be questioned, what many business leaders agree is that students need to learn AI skills above all—or they could risk becoming part of the growing number of Gen Zers who are NEET, not in employment, education, or training.
Earlier this year, over 250 CEOs, including Microsoft’s Satya Nadella, Airbnb’s Brian Chesky, and Uber’s Dara Khosrowshahi, called for an increase in computer science and AI education among all students.
“In the age of AI, we must prepare our children for the future—to be AI creators, not just consumers,” the CEOs wrote in a letter sent to lawmakers. “A basic foundation in computer science and AI is crucial for helping every student thrive in a technology-driven world. Without it, they risk falling behind.”
But that doesn’t necessarily mean your college major has to be squarely AI or tech-focused. In fact, when Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang was recently asked what the young version of himself would choose to focus on today, he said he’d opt for “more of the physical sciences than the software sciences.”
The top 50 schools for long-term career success
According to LinkedIn
- Princeton University
- Duke University
- University of Pennsylvania
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
- Cornell University
- Harvard University
- Babson College
- University of Notre Dame
- Dartmouth College
- Stanford University
- Northwestern University
- University of Virginia
- Vanderbilt University
- Brown University
- Bentley University
- Tufts University
- Lehigh University
- Columbia University
- Yale University
- Carnegie Mellon University
- Bucknell University
- Boston College
- Villanova University
- University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
- Wake Forest University
- University of Chicago
- University of Southern California
- Fairfield University
- Washington and Lee University
- University of California-Berkeley
- Rice University
- Georgetown University
- Purdue University
- University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
- Miami University
- Colgate University
- Southern Methodist University
- Bryant University
- Worcester Polytechnic Institute
- The Pennsylvania State University
- California Institute of Technology
- Trinity College
- Boston University
- University of Richmond
- Stevens Institute of Technology
- The University of Texas at Austin
- Indiana University Bloomington
- Lafayette College
- Providence College
- University of Wisconsin-Madison
