The 18 private colleges where students go on to earn the most money

Private colleges tend to be more expensive than their public counterparts.

However, at the following schools, the payoff is worth the extra cost.

PayScale, the creator of the world's largest compensation database, recently looked at the starting and mid-career pay for over a million college grads - including professionals who graduated with a bachelor's from 963 colleges and universities.

For its College Salary Report, which was compiled using data from employees who successfully completed PayScale's employee survey, PayScale sorted the results by college major, degree, college, and type of school.

Students with a bachelor's degree from these private colleges go on to earn the highest salaries 10-plus years into their career: