The 21 best-value colleges in the US, based on what students earn in the workforce years later

• Kiplinger rounded up the best colleges by value, comparing costs of tuition and median salaries of past students.
• The top colleges aren't all Ivy League - public schools also made the list.
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Going to college can be a big investment these days, so getting the best value is more important than ever.

Finance publication Kiplinger looked costs and future salaries for students at colleges and universities across the US, and came up with 500 colleges that are the best value.

And it turns out that Ivy League schools aren't necessarily dominating the list - the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a public university, ranked above Harvard and Yale for value.

Future salary data is calculated as the median salary of workers who started at that college 10 years earlier, not considering whether they graduated or went on to graduate school. Total costs include estimated tuition, fees, room and board, and book costs. Data was sourced from the US Department of Education College Scorecard and Peterson's Database.

Here are the top 21 colleges where students can get the best value from their college tuition dollar.