Top colleges in Montana by 10-year ROI
Executive Summary
Bachelor’s-predominant institutions located in Montana with at least 200 students, sorted by the same 10-year ROI estimate used nationally. Montana Technological University leads this list at $177,412 (10 Yr. ROI).
Leaders: top 3
Montana Technological University
10 Yr. ROI
$177,412
Montana State University-Northern
10 Yr. ROI
$171,375
Carroll College
10 Yr. ROI
$150,198
Top 9 Top colleges in Montana by 10-year ROI
| Rank | Institution | State | Control | Enrollment | 10 Yr. ROI | Also see |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Montana Technological University | MT | Public | 1,480 | $177,412 | Grad 58.2% · Net $16,481 |
| 2 | Montana State University-Northern | MT | Public | 761 | $171,375 | Grad 41.1% · Net $12,664 |
| 3 | Carroll College | MT | Private nonprofit | 1,092 | $150,198 | Grad 69.3% · Net $23,960 |
| 4 | University of Providence | MT | Private nonprofit | 528 | $132,558 | Grad 27.9% · Net $17,649 |
| 5 | Montana State University | MT | Public | 14,451 | $131,779 | Grad 57.1% · Net $22,499 |
| 6 | Montana State University Billings | MT | Public | 2,626 | $129,664 | Grad 30.0% · Net $16,524 |
| 7 | Rocky Mountain College | MT | Private nonprofit | 840 | $127,384 | Grad 48.4% · Net $19,751 |
| 8 | The University of Montana-Western | MT | Public | 1,198 | $119,212 | Grad 51.2% · Net $16,558 |
| 9 | The University of Montana | MT | Public | 7,488 | $116,882 | Grad 48.0% · Net $16,784 |
Method notes
- Underlying institution file: EDsmart Data processed College Scorecard extract merged to the IPEDS 2024 directory for HBCU and Carnegie fields.
- Cohort applied on this page: enrollment floor of 200 undergraduates; sorted highest first on 10 Yr. ROI; all 9 qualifying campuses are shown.
- Ties on the ranked metric are broken by enrollment, then institution name, so ranks stay stable between rebuilds.
- ROI column matches the processed college_roi_rankings series in this site build; see College Scorecard ROI methodology.
- How the 10-year ROI figure is built: median earnings reported 6, 8, and 10 years after entry (years 7 and 9 linearly interpolated) are summed across years 6–10, then average annual net price × typical years enrolled (five for bachelor’s-predominant campuses) is subtracted. It is a nominal-dollar gap—not discounted to present value, and it does not subtract earnings foregone while enrolled or compare against a no-college baseline. Campuses reporting only one of the three earnings years are excluded from these tables.
- School profile links use generated slugs; not every campus has a published profile page yet—use the Scorecard site as fallback.