Would you be better off enrolling at pharmacy school or Harvard University?

If you’re looking for a long-term return on investment, a new study suggests that attending Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, the Longwood-area pharmacy school, may be a better option. MCPHS ranked No. 3 in a study of colleges based the economic gains they provide their students after 40 years, done by Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce and released Thursday.

Students who attend MCPHS could on average see a net economic gain — after paying off their college debt — of $2.4 million after 40 years. Harvard ranks No. 8, with an economic gain of nearly $2 million. Two other area colleges, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (No. 4), with an economic gain of $2.3 million, and Babson College (No. 7), with about $2 million in net income gain, help round out the Top 10 list.

In fact, many of the Top 10 colleges on the list specialize in certain fields: The top three are all pharmacy schools, and two top institutions are maritime academies that help students prepare to work on ships.

“The variation is what stuns me,” said Anthony P. Carnevale, the study’s lead author and the director of the Georgetown study. “It is the tip of the iceberg on real transparency in higher education.”

The study aims to shed light on the hotly debated question of whether college is worth the cost and rank how well institutions do in helping their students improve their earning potential. The Georgetown study examines and ranks more than 4,500 colleges nationwide and is based on data submitted by institutions to the federal government.

At a time when the rising cost of college and the ballooning amount of student loan debt has worried families, policy-makers, and young students about whether college is worth the financial risk, the Georgetown report offers some positive news for higher education.

“I will probably share this report with one or two people,” said Stephen Spinelli, the president of Babson College. “People are questioning deeply the value position. This says the value proposition is robust.”

Babson, a business school that focuses on entrepreneurship, counts the cofounder of Home Depot and the former chief executive officer of PepsiCo among its graduates. The college attracts students who are interested in starting businesses, and after graduating, many land in leadership positions at their organizations, explaining why Babson’s ranking at the top of Georgetown’s study.

But not all students want to become pharmacists, launch companies, become engineers, or spend their career at sea, working on a ship.

The report does indicate that colleges more generally are a good investment.

In the short term, over a 10-year period, community colleges and certificate programs, particularly in nursing, provide the highest returns on investment, in part because students graduate with little debt and can move into the workforce.

Four-year institutions may initially cost more, but over a 40-year period their graduates also have higher economic gains, according to the report. Private four-year colleges on average have higher net returns, according to the report.

Over the course of 40 years, even after paying off higher amounts of debt, a private college graduate will reap a long-term net economic gain of $838,000, compared with $765,000 for graduates of public colleges, according to the report.

The best performing colleges in Georgetown’s ranking were four-year institutions with low student-debt levels that offered degrees that led to high paying jobs, including Harvard, Stanford University, and the Maine Maritime Academy.

Theological institutions, beauty schools, and colleges that focus on music and the arts ranked low in economic gains for their graduates.

In Massachusetts, Berklee College of Music graduates had an economic gain of $456,000 in a 40-year period, placing it below some of the state’s community colleges.

Still, education experts and Carnevale warn that families and students should look at more than this ranking to determine whether a college is right for them. Students should talk to guidance counselors, look at the institution’s graduation rates, and how long it takes students to earn their earn their degree, and how many students default on their loans.

In some cases, the schools that do well in Georgetown’s rankings are also drawing students who are likely to do well, no matter what school they attend, said Phillip Levine, a Wellesley economics professor who focuses on college affordability.

A student who gets into MIT is likely to earn more after graduation regardless of whether they attend MIT, Levine said.

Ultimately, students who go to college for the most part do get a return on their investment, Levine said.

“Yes, college is worth it. College is even more worth it for low-income kids,” he said. “Community colleges show positive returns, going to lower-level state school shows a positive return, elite schools show a positive return.”