For parents · College costs
If you are working out what a degree will cost your family, published tuition is the wrong number to start from. Most students do not pay it. The figure below is net price — the average a first-year family pays after grant aid — for 354 four-year colleges, grouped by state.
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| Median net price | $19,857 |
| Median federal loan debt at graduation | $15,396 |
| Median earnings 10 years after entry | $62,870 |
| Median six-year graduation rate | 73.4% |
Read those four together. Net price tells you the outlay, debt tells you what is borrowed to cover it, earnings tell you what tends to come back, and the graduation rate tells you how often the whole thing completes at all. A college that scores well on cost and badly on completion is not a bargain.
| State | Median net price | Median debt | Colleges |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | $23,372 | $17,868 | 6 |
| Arizona | $15,820 | $13,610 | 5 |
| Arkansas | $15,431 | $15,038 | 2 |
| California | $14,610 | $12,953 | 37 |
| Colorado | $23,312 | $13,200 | 5 |
| Connecticut | $32,504 | $19,305 | 7 |
| Delaware | $15,854 | $19,250 | 2 |
| District of Columbia | $40,815 | $19,200 | 3 |
| Florida | $13,154 | $14,611 | 16 |
| Georgia | $15,931 | $15,250 | 13 |
| Hawaii | $16,219 | $9,300 | 2 |
| Idaho | $20,546 | $15,500 | 2 |
| Illinois | $18,492 | $14,875 | 12 |
| Indiana | $15,364 | $16,212 | 6 |
| Iowa | $20,560 | $16,179 | 4 |
| Kansas | $19,406 | $15,500 | 3 |
| Kentucky | $17,988 | $16,750 | 5 |
| Louisiana | $19,943 | $17,352 | 6 |
| Maine | $20,297 | $13,721 | 4 |
| Maryland | $16,546 | $15,484 | 5 |
| Massachusetts | $28,524 | $18,110 | 20 |
| Michigan | $16,317 | $19,500 | 6 |
| Minnesota | $25,407 | $16,727 | 7 |
| Mississippi | $16,636 | $17,390 | 6 |
| Missouri | $20,268 | $17,875 | 5 |
| Montana | $20,074 | $13,124 | 2 |
| Nebraska | $17,747 | $14,750 | 1 |
| Nevada | $13,143 | $12,750 | 2 |
| New Hampshire | $33,114 | $12,163 | 2 |
| New Jersey | $22,408 | $17,500 | 5 |
| New Mexico | $12,681 | $12,378 | 2 |
| New York | $28,690 | $15,015 | 24 |
| North Carolina | $17,070 | $16,630 | 14 |
| North Dakota | $14,092 | $11,960 | 1 |
| Ohio | $25,648 | $16,000 | 11 |
| Oklahoma | $17,447 | $15,500 | 3 |
| Oregon | $22,182 | $15,000 | 3 |
| Pennsylvania | $31,624 | $19,625 | 18 |
| Puerto Rico | $9,224 | $5,500 | 12 |
| Rhode Island | $48,523 | $23,250 | 3 |
| South Carolina | $22,532 | $19,250 | 6 |
| South Dakota | $22,227 | $14,750 | 1 |
| Tennessee | $18,976 | $14,250 | 5 |
| Texas | $17,536 | $15,125 | 24 |
| Utah | $15,564 | $9,500 | 3 |
| Vermont | $31,215 | $15,386 | 2 |
| Virginia | $22,318 | $16,458 | 14 |
| Washington | $14,971 | $12,375 | 3 |
| West Virginia | $12,486 | $15,500 | 2 |
| Wisconsin | $16,184 | $16,654 | 2 |
Aid and admission both move with test scores. Free adaptive SAT and ACT practice, an unofficial estimate, and a view of how it lands against each college's range.
Start free practice →Net price is what a family actually pays after grants and scholarships are deducted. Published tuition is a list price that a majority of students never pay, so comparing colleges on tuition alone will mislead you.
The median federal loan debt at graduation across the colleges we track is $15,396. This counts federal loans only; private and parent loans are additional and are not captured in federal reporting.
Sometimes. Compare net price against graduation rate and median earnings ten years on, all three of which are on every college profile here. A cheaper college with a much lower graduation rate is often the worse financial decision.
Source: U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard. Medians are across the four-year colleges in our dataset, which covers larger and better-known institutions rather than every college in the country.
FunSAT is a free browser-based SAT and ACT prep app: digital SAT and ACT practice tests, unofficial score calculators, a built-in graphing calculator, college admissions chances from official U.S. Department of Education data, and a scholarship search. Start free practice →