John Jay Is #8 on Forbes “25 Colleges with the Highest Payoff” List

John Jay College is ranked eighth nationwide on the Forbes Magazine list of 25 colleges with the highest payoff. To create the list, Forbes calculated which colleges and universities had the highest return on investment, or high earnings potential, for a relatively low price. 

Committed to educating fierce advocates for justice, this recognition reflects John Jay’s mission to provide students from historically underrepresented communities with access to higher education and the economic, social and other benefits of earning a college degree. With tuition a fraction of the average cost of attending comparable colleges nationwide, 85% of John Jay students graduate with $0 student debt. Learn more about the affordability of a John Jay degree. 

Forbes focused on the price-to-earnings premium – a calculation from think tank Third Way that shows the number of years it takes to recoup a student’s net cost of the degree (after grants and scholarships are deducted) – and on debt-to-percent-borrowed index— a number generated by multiplying the median federal loan debt per borrower by the percentage of students who took out federal loans at that college. Forbes used federal data from the 2024-2025 academic year, the latest available. 

John Jay is also ranked #1 nationwide for most affordable forensic psych and forensic science programs, #3 nationwide for sending Black students to law school and #13 for Hispanic students, #3 nationwide for social mobility by US News & World Report, #5 nationwide in Best Value by the Wall Street Journal, #5 in the Northeast for Best Bang for the Buck by Washington Monthly and a Best College in America by Money magazine.