Texas A&M University ranks second among universities nationwide in terms of how much money graduates earn compared with how much they spent on their undergraduate education, according to rankings by a national magazine.

"An elite-college degree is nice, but once you factor in tuition and future salaries, public schools jump to the head of the class," stated Smart Money in an article in its January issue.

Tuition at Texas A&M costs about $5,000 a year -- slightly more than $163 per semester credit hour for an undergraduate resident student, a university spokesman said.

Texas A&M was behind only the University of Georgia in the magazine's rankings. The University of Texas at Austin, Georgia Tech and the University of Washington rounded out the top five.

"We are obviously pleased -- but certainly not surprised -- to have Texas A&M acknowledged as a national leader in the financial return on investment in a college education," Texas A&M University President Elsa Murano said in a statement.

"We don't necessarily strive to be the least expensive; our goal is to provide the best overall value for a university that offers a world-class educational experience."

The magazine calculated the universities' "payback ratio" after examining the median salary that alumni earn within five and 10 years after graduation. The magazine's editors then divided those figures by the school's historical degree costs and averaged them together.

Texas A&M graduates earn an average payback of 315 percent, the magazine said.

Last week, The Wall Street Journal, which also publishes Smart Money, ranked Texas A&M's executive MBA program as providing the best return on investment of any program in the country.

The Mays Business School gives students a 243 percent five-year return on investment, the highest of the 27 schools the newspaper compared.