The 22 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.

Aubrey Bach, PayScale's head of alumni analytics, tells Business Insider: "PayScale's College ROI Report gives students and their families access to this exact information so that they can decide which school is the best fit for their career goals and their financial situation."

PayScale says, however, that this doesn't mean students should pursue only majors with the highest earning potential or 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.

All data used to produce PayScale's Return on Investment Package were collected from 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, as calculated by the cost for a graduate in 2015, on and off campus - and then looked at the 20-year return for each college, which is the expected future income stream. (Click here to read more about the methodology.)

See the full interactive list here, and keep scrolling for the top 22 colleges for your money. (The "total cost" and "20 year ROI" figures are for students who live on campus.)

Dragan Radovanovic/Business Insider