Best Colleges for Foreign Languages: Ranked by Graduate Salary, Not Prestige
We rank by what graduates actually earn — not by reputation surveys.
Top Schools for Foreign Languages — Ranked by Graduate Salary
These schools produce the highest-earning Foreign Languages graduates, based on federal earnings data. We rank by salary outcomes, not prestige.
| # | School | Foreign Languages Salary | Acceptance Rate | Degrees/Year | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Brown University Providence, RI |
$58,900 | 5.2% | 28 | Reach |
| 2 | Columbia University New York, NY |
$58,900 | 4.2% | 79 | Reach |
| 3 | Cornell University Ithaca, NY |
$58,900 | 8.2% | 30 | Reach |
| 4 | Dartmouth College Hanover, NH |
$58,900 | 6.2% | 40 | Reach |
| 5 | Duke University Durham, NC |
$58,900 | 6.8% | 18 | Reach |
| 6 | Harvard University Cambridge, MA |
$58,900 | 3.5% | 27 | Reach |
| 7 | New York University (NYU) New York, NY |
$58,900 | 9.4% | 28 | Reach |
| 8 | Northwestern University Evanston, IL |
$58,900 | 7.1% | 23 | Reach |
| 9 | Princeton University Princeton, NJ |
$58,900 | 4.5% | 45 | Reach |
| 10 | Stanford University Stanford, CA |
$58,900 | 3.9% | 36 | Reach |
| 11 | UCLA Los Angeles, CA |
$58,900 | 9.0% | 199 | Reach |
| 12 | University of Chicago Chicago, IL |
$58,900 | 4.8% | 40 | Reach |
| 13 | University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, PA |
$58,900 | 5.9% | 41 | Reach |
| 14 | Yale University New Haven, CT |
$58,900 | 4.5% | 35 | Reach |
| 15 | Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh, PA |
$55,100 | 11.4% | 5 | Reach |
| 16 | Georgetown University Washington, DC |
$55,100 | 13.1% | 47 | Reach |
| 17 | Tufts University Medford, MA |
$55,100 | 10.1% | 16 | Reach |
| 18 | UC Berkeley Berkeley, CA |
$55,100 | 11.7% | 133 | Reach |
| 19 | USC Los Angeles, CA |
$55,100 | 10.0% | 56 | Reach |
| 20 | Georgia Tech Atlanta, GA |
$51,300 | 16.5% | 28 | Match |
| 21 | University of Michigan Ann Arbor, MI |
$51,300 | 17.9% | 108 | Match |
| 22 | University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, NC |
$51,300 | 18.7% | 39 | Match |
| 23 | University of Virginia Charlottesville, VA |
$51,300 | 16.9% | 71 | Match |
| 24 | Texas A&M University Austin, TX |
$47,500 | 29.1% | 103 | Match |
| 25 | UC Irvine Irvine, CA |
$47,500 | 25.6% | 44 | Match |
| 26 | UC San Diego La Jolla, CA |
$47,500 | 24.5% | 14 | Match |
| 27 | UC Santa Barbara Santa Barbara, CA |
$47,500 | 27.8% | 164 | Match |
| 28 | University of Florida Gainesville, FL |
$47,500 | 24.0% | 129 | Match |
| 29 | UC Davis Davis, CA |
$43,700 | 41.6% | 115 | Safety |
| 30 | University of Illinois Champaign, IL |
$43,700 | 43.7% | 38 | Safety |
Data source: IPEDS, College Scorecard.