Top colleges in the District of Columbia by 10-year ROI
Executive Summary
Bachelor’s-predominant institutions located in the District of Columbia with at least 200 students, sorted by the same 10-year ROI estimate used nationally. Georgetown University leads this list at $253,531 (10 Yr. ROI).
Leaders: top 3
Georgetown University
10 Yr. ROI
$253,531
George Washington University
10 Yr. ROI
$218,738
The Catholic University of America
10 Yr. ROI
$197,086
Top 8 Top colleges in the District of Columbia by 10-year ROI
| Rank | Institution | State | Control | Enrollment | 10 Yr. ROI | Also see |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Georgetown University | DC | Private nonprofit | 7,569 | $253,531 | Grad 94.8% · Net $40,815 |
| 2 | George Washington University | DC | Private nonprofit | 11,182 | $218,738 | Grad 84.0% · Net $36,586 |
| 3 | The Catholic University of America | DC | Private nonprofit | 3,154 | $197,086 | Grad 79.5% · Net $29,561 |
| 4 | Trinity Washington University | DC | Private nonprofit | 1,414 | $186,608 | Grad 49.3% · Net $9,302 |
| 5 | American University | DC | Private nonprofit | 7,266 | $139,218 | Grad 75.5% · Net $41,943 |
| 6 | Gallaudet University | DC | Private nonprofit | 812 | $118,882 | Grad 47.3% · Net $15,845 |
| 7 | Strayer University-Global Region | DC | Private for-profit | 9,376 | $99,974 | Grad 14.3% · Net $17,833 |
| 8 | Howard University | DC | Private nonprofit | 10,108 | $22,610 | Grad 70.0% · Net $50,539 |
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 8 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.