The 20 best colleges for your money

A college education is a huge investment of both time and money - so it's helpful to know which schools and programs are worth it.

With that in mind, PayScale, a company that provides information on careers and salaries, compiled its 2017 College ROI Report: Best Value Colleges, to give prospective college students and families a sense of which colleges make the most financial sense.

All data used to produce PayScale's Return on Investment Package were collected from approximately 1.3 million employees who successfully completed PayScale's employee survey. To calculate the ROI, PayScale looked at the investment in each college, which includes the cost of attending on and off campus - and then looked at the 20-year return for each college, which is how much a graduate can expect to make over 20 years, minus the investment it costs to attend college. (See the full methodology here.)

Still, PayScale notes that it is not advising that students make decisions about where to attend school based solely off college ROI rankings. They need to do what will make them happy - but it doesn't hurt to be educated on their potential return.

Take a look below to see the 20 best colleges for your money.

Diana Yukari/Business Insider