Methodology

Every figure traces back to one official dataset. Here is how it is built.

The source

All numbers come from the College Scorecard, U.S. Department of Education (2026 release), the federal database of institution-level college costs and outcomes. It is public and free. We use the most recent reported values for each institution.

From colleges to states

The Scorecard reports figures per institution. For each state we combine its 4-year institutions into one figure, weighting each school by its undergraduate enrollment so colleges more students attend count for more. Public figures cover public 4-year colleges; private figures cover private nonprofit 4-year colleges.

Cost, net price, earnings and debt

Tuition and fees are the sticker price, in-state and out-of-state for public colleges. Net price is the full cost of attendance, including living costs, minus the average grants and scholarships, so it is the closer measure of what a family actually pays. Earnings are the median a student earns 10 years after entering, and debt is the median federal loan balance at graduation. Nationally that is about $9,518 in-state tuition, $13,788 net price, $56,427 earnings and $17,856 debt.

Payback: recouping the net price

Payback is the ROI figure this index adds: how many years the college earnings premium takes to recoup the net price of a degree. We define it as the public 4-year net price times 4(net price is an annual figure and a bachelor's degree is assumed to take four years), divided by the earnings premium. The earnings premium is a state's median graduate earnings, 10 years after entry, minus a high-school-graduate baseline. Nationally that is about $55,152 over four years divided by a $14,627-a-year premium, a payback of about 3.8 years.

The high-school-graduate baseline is $41,800 a year, the NCES, Condition of Education, Annual Earnings by Educational Attainment (2022): median earnings of high school completers ages 25-34 in full-time, year-round work. We use the ages-25-to-34 figure, not an all-ages one, because graduate earnings are measured about 10 years after college entry, so both sides are early-career numbers and the comparison is age-matched. It comes from the same federal family as the College Scorecard.

Limits

These are state averages, not quotes for a specific school or student. Actual costs vary a lot by institution, program, residency and aid, and earnings depend heavily on field of study. Some small institutions withhold earnings or debt for privacy, so those are left out of the weighting. Payback in particular is sensitive where a state's graduate earnings sit close to the high-school baseline: a small premium stretches the payback to many years, and the baseline is national, so it does not adjust for state cost of living. We cover 50 states plus the District of Columbia, 4-year institutions only.

Independent project, not affiliated with the U.S. Department of Education. Content is made with the help of AI tools and reviewed by a person before publishing.