Private colleges tend to come with a steep price tag.
Is it worth the cost in the long run?
CNBC used the U.S. Department of Education's College Scorecard — a tool that provides a variety of data on thousands of colleges, including the median earnings of federally aided students 10 years after enrolling — to highlight the private schools where students go on to earn the most money.
For our ranking, we restricted the list to bachelor's degree-granting institutions and excluded special focus institutions.
Scroll down to see which colleges cracked the top 17 and the average annual cost of each school, which the U.S. Department of Education defines as "the average annual net price for federal aid recipients, after aid from the school, state, or federal government."
