Slideshow: Colleges That Pay Off

The story should mention the U.S. military academies such as West Point. Tuition remains $0, and graduates are guaranteed a meaningful job in which, after 3 years, they will make at least $72,000 a year. After 15 years, if the stay in the military, they will make at least $108,000 a year--and those graduates who go into the civilian sector after their 5 year active duty service obligation tend to earn much more.

Data available here: http://www.defenselink.mil/militarypay/pay/calc/index.html

I think it would be a better explanation for all if the article, at least once, described that it was creating relative value based on internal rate of return. (IRR for those of you playing at home with Excel). By this standard, yes, Georgia at ~61% returns on the initial investment of 14,405 is a great deal. An Ivy degree from say, Harvard has an IRR of "only" 40%.

There are two points I wish the authors had made:
1. Any investment in higher education is better than any realistic expectation of returns elsewhere.
2. Since this is an investment you can only make once (grad school excluded), IRR may not be the best measure of success. Rather you should "Buy as much school as you can afford" since as 1 commenter has already pointed out, the NPV is higher and as stated above the IRR is better than any comparable investment.