[jamesaguilar]

Ah, I was hoping that this article would be talking about ways for students to choose colleges more optimally. :(

[dpeck]

Probably not exactly what you're looking for but there are some "long term pay off" rankings that are updated every now and then. The most recent I could find was from smartmoney.com with story at http://www.smartmoney.com/borrow/student-loans/colleges-that... and a(n annoying multipage) slide show with the top 5 in each category, Public, Private, Lib Arts, is here http://www.smartmoney.com/borrow/student-loans/colleges-that...

Of course more variables would be needed and how to weigh them would be different for each student, but from a Moneyball approach payback would probably be one of the strongest factors.