The Best Colleges In Each State, Visualized

With Americans spending more on college than virtually any other country on Earth, picking the institution of higher education that will ensure one will make a comfortable living in the future is becoming more and more important. Fortunately, the data visualization wizards at HowMuch.net, a financial literacy website, crunched the numbers and created a nifty map of the best individual school by state in the United States.

Taking data from a report that Forbes put together by looking at six general categories — alumni salary (20%), student satisfaction (20%), debt (20%), American leaders (15%), on-time graduation rates (12.5%) and academic success (12.5%) — HowMuch.net's Juan Carlos devised a map that shows the top-performing colleges by state, their average starting salary of graduates and how much each school costs per year. See the full-sized map here.

And here are the top 10 colleges by state and starting salary:

1. Stanford University, California, Private – $79,000
2. U.S. Air Force Academy, Colorado, Public – $76,300
3. Princeton University, New Jersey, Private – $75,200
4. Harvard University, Massachusetts, Private – $74,800
5. University of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania, Private – $72,800
6. Darmouth University, New Hampshire, Private – $71,500
7. Duke University, North Carolina, Private – $71,100
8. Rice University, Texas, Private – $71,000
9. Yale University, Connecticut, Private – $70,300
10. Cornell University, New York, Private – $70,100

[Read more at HowMuch]