Marietta, Ga. (April 22, 2011) – According to a report released in April by Bloomberg Businessweek, the return on investment (ROI) students enjoy with an SPSU degree is rivaled in Georgia only by degrees from Georgia Tech, Emory University, the University of Georgia (UGA) and Georgia State University (GSU).  That makes an SPSU degree the fourth most valuable offered by the state’s public universities, and the fifth of all universities in the state.

ROI is determined by comparing how much it costs to get a degree versus how much graduates earn over the course of their careers. Bloomberg Businessweek first teamed up with PayScale, which maintains a national employee-compensation database, last year to compile the “What’s Your College Worth?” annual ranking of U.S. colleges and universities’ ROI. In addition to tuition and fees and graduate salaries, their calculations also take into account six-year graduation rates and the amount of local, state, federal and institutional grant aid awarded to a school’s undergraduates.

An in-state graduate’s degree from SPSU carries a 30-year net ROI of $1,011,000 without financial aid and $1,038,000 with financial aid (compared to $1,349,000 at Georgia Tech without aid and $1,387,000 with aid). Aside from Tech, UGA and GSU’s in-state students, all other University System of Georgia institutions have a much lower ROI than SPSU.