The Most Expensive College in Every State

The average undergraduate student enrolled in Tuskegee University receiving grant or scholarship aid pays $33,420 a year for room, board, tuition, and textbooks (minus any financial aid) — more than the average student in any other college or university in Alabama. Tuskegee is a private, historically Black school and graduates more African Americans with degrees in STEM fields — science, technology, engineering, and mathematics — than any other college or university in Alabama.

Tuskegee is more selective than most schools in the state, accepting only 51.7% of nearly 11,000 applicants in 2019. Only about half a dozen other schools in the state have a lower acceptance rate.

Of the nine qualifying higher learning institutions in Alaska, Alaska Pacific University is the only one with an annual net price of more than $20,000. The school also happens to be the easiest college in the state to get into, with an 89.2% admission rate.

Alaska Pacific University is a relatively small liberal arts college located in Anchorage, with fewer than 400 active undergrad students.

The average undergraduate student receiving aid at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott Arizona pays nearly $37,000 per year, even after accounting for financial aid. The school specializes in offering education in aviation, technology, and security, and the school’s flight department boasts 45 airplanes and 18 helicopters.

Like most schools on this list, Embry-Riddle is private. Still, the average annual cost of attendance is more than $18,000 higher than the average across all private schools nationwide.

John Brown University is a small, private, Christian school located in Siloam Springs, Arkansas. Though it ranks as the most expensive college or university in the state, the average annual cost of attendance of $21,912 is not much higher than the average cost of $19,220 across all four-year private institutions nationwide.

Less selective than many other schools on this list, John Brown University granted admission to more than three-quarters of the 1,176 prospective students who applied in 2019.

The California Institute of the Arts, a private college outside of Los Angeles, is the most expensive school in California and one of the most expensive in the country. The average undergraduate student receiving financial aid pays $54,594 per year to attend — more than double the average net price of $19,220 across all private schools nationwide.

The school, co-founded by Walt Disney, offers a range of degrees in arts, including acting, character animation, creative writing, and film direction.

The University of Denver is a private research university that is over 150 years old. It narrowly edged out Platt College – Aurora to rank as the state’s most expensive school, with students paying $37,263 for tuition, books, room and board, minus any financial aid.

The University of Denver’s admission rate is 58.7%, just slightly higher than the average across U.S. colleges.

Located in the southern Connecticut city of Hamden, Quinnipiac University is well known for its polling, covering elections and political issues. The university’s polls are often cited by major news organizations. With students who receive financial aid paying over $41,000 to attend Quinnipiac, the university is one of the most expensive in the entire country. Even Ivy League school Yale University in nearby New Haven costs less than half of what Quinnipiac University does.

Wesley College is one of just five qualifying four-year colleges in the state of Delaware, and by far the most expensive. Students receiving financial aid pay on average $24,705 to attend Wesley, over $7,000 more than the next college in the state.

In spite of its relatively high annual cost, Wesley’s admitted students have the lowest test scores among Delaware colleges for which there are data. The typical school student scores a 922 combined between the math and reading SAT tests, and a composite score of 18 on the ACT test.

Ringling College of Art and Design is the second most expensive four-year college in the country and one of just five with an annual net price for students receiving financial aid of over $50,000.

The private college in Sarasota, Florida offers 13 different bachelor of arts and fine arts degrees in majors like film, graphic design, creative writing, and more.

Savannah College of Art and Design is one of the largest institutions to rank as the most expensive in its state, with nearly 13,000 undergraduate students. It is one of many art schools to appear on this list. Students pay $44,460 for tuition, books, room and board, minus any financial aid.

Nearly 96% of applicants to this school are accepted, compared to a 65% acceptance rate for the typical school. The college offers dozens of majors, including in painting, performing arts, and photography as well as in more business-focused studies like design management, creative business leadership, and social strategy and management.

Colleges in Hawaii are generally expensive, with the cheapest annual net price at nearly $12,000. Nationwide, public colleges cost less than $10,000 per year on average and private schools cost just over $19,000 annually. Hawaii Pacific University stands out as the most expensive of the seven colleges in the state with an average net price of over $27,000 among students who receive financial aid.

The private college in downtown Honolulu accepts nearly three-quarters of prospective students who apply.

Boise Bible College is one of a number of religious institutions that rank as the most expensive higher learning institution in their state. The school offers students a number of Christian-focused degree programs like Biblical studies, family and youth ministry, spiritual formation, and Christian psychology. It is one of three Idaho colleges with an annual net price over $20,000.

Boise Bible College is one of the smallest colleges on this list, with just 114 students in the 2018-2019 school year.

School of the Art Institute of Chicago is one of just a handful of four-year colleges in America with an annual net price for students who receive tuition or grant aid of over $50,000 — more than $13,000 higher than any other school in Illinois.

According to U.S. News and World Reports, SAIC ranks as one of the country’s three best fine arts schools. The school attracts many students from overseas, as over one-third of enrollees are not U.S. citizens.

The Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology is a private college in Terre Haute, Indiana, that specializes in educating students in STEM fields, particularly engineering. The annual net cost of attendance — including room, board, tuition, and textbooks and minus any financial aid — among students receiving aid is the highest of any Indiana college by more than $5,000.

Though Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology admits nearly three-quarters of applicants, its students tend to be among the top in standardized test scorers in the state, and even the country. Students score on average 1375 combined on the math and reading SAT test and a composite 31 on the ACT — both among the top 100 in the nation among qualified schools.

Just 60% of enrolled students at Clarke University receive some form of grant or tuition aid. This is the lowest share out of 31 four-year colleges in the state. Even those students receiving aid pay an annual net price of $34,424, the highest of any Iowa school.

The private Catholic school has a relatively high acceptance rate, at 93.9%.

Cleveland University-Kansas City is one of just three institutions on this list that accepted every applicant for the 2019-2020 school year — just five prospective students applied. With just 176 enrolled undergraduate students, it is one of the smallest colleges on this list. It is also the most expensive college in Kansas by nearly $10,000 per year, with students paying over $35,000 for tuition, books, room and board, minus any financial aid.

Cleveland University-Kansas City is a health-focused college, offering chiropractic degrees as well as other programs like health education and human biology.

The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville primarily educates students to become Southern Baptist ministers, offering degrees in fields like biblical and theological studies, church ministry, missions and evangelism, and more.

Just 26% of students receive any type of financial aid in the form of a grant — the second lowest share of any institution on this list. For context, at every other four-year school in Kentucky, over 60% of undergraduate students receive financial aid. Even those who receive aid pay an average net price of nearly $27,000 per year.

Tulane University in New Orleans is by far the most expensive college in the state of Louisiana, with students paying in tuition, room and board, and study materials less any financial aid over $40,000 a year. The net price of every other college in the state is less than $28,000 per year. Of all the colleges that rank as the most expensive in their state, Tulane is the most difficult to get into. Fewer than 13% of applicants are accepted.

The prestigious research institution offers 70 majors in fields including science and engineering, architecture, business, liberal arts, and public health.

The University of New England is located in Biddeford in southern Maine on the coast. Of its 5,175 applicants for the 2019-2020 school year, 84.4% were accepted. The typical college accepted 56.7% of its applicants the same academic year. Students who received grant or scholarship aid pay $34,198 for tuition, books, room and board, minus any financial aid.

The University of New England, the most expensive in Maine, offers a number of degree fields, largely in STEM fields, like biology, applied mathematics, chemistry, environmental sciences, and more.

One of several art schools on this list, Maryland Institute College of Art is the priciest college in the state, more expensive than institutions like St. John’s College and Johns Hopkins University. The school is popular among foreign students, as more than a quarter of its 2,139 undergraduate students are not U.S. citizens.

Maryland Institute College of Art has an annual net price of $42,750 — nearly $5,000 more than any other school in the state.

The New England Conservatory of Music is one of six four-year colleges in Massachusetts with annual net prices — the annual cost of tuition, books, room and board, minus any financial aid — of over $40,000. Students can attend the conservatory to major in music performance in musical sections like brass, strings, woodwind, vocal, piano, percussion, and more. They can also study music theory, conducting, and composition.

Many of the institutions on this list have a relatively large share of non-American students, but none more so than The New England Conservatory of Music, as 42.3% of enrollees are non-citizens.

Kettering University is a private school in Flint, Michigan, that specializes in STEM and business degrees. It ranks as the most expensive institution in the state, with an annual net price of over $39,000 for students who receive some form of financial aid — which is approximately 97% of them.

Among the more than 40 qualifying four-year colleges in Michigan, Kettering enrollees have among the best standardized test scores. The typical student scores 1280 on the combined math and reading SAT tests and 28 on the composite ACT.

In addition to being the most expensive college in Minnesota, Carleton College is also the most difficult to get into by a significant margin. Carleton only accepts 19.1% of applicants. The next closest school has an acceptance rate of over 30%. Carleton College students performed better on standardized tests than students of any other Minnesota college, with the typical student scoring a combined 1440 on the math and reading SAT tests and a composite 33 on the ACT.

Private liberal arts school Millsaps College, located in Jackson, is the most expensive school in Mississippi. Nearly all Millsaps College students, 99.0%, receive financial aid, and for those students who receive aid, the annual net price — the annual cost of tuition, books, room and board, minus any financial aid — is nearly $24,500.

Millsaps College is relatively small, with fewer than 900 enrolled undergraduate students for the 2019-2020 school year.

Conception Seminary College is a men’s only liberal arts school in northwestern Missouri that aims to prepare students for the priesthood. All students receive some sort of financial aid, though even after financial aid, the annual net price is over $35,000.

The school is one of the smallest on this list, and indeed in the entire country, with just 66 enrolled undergraduate students.

Carroll College is the only higher learning institution in Montana with students paying over $25,000 for tuition, books, room and board, minus any financial aid. Some 92% of attendees receive some sort of grand aid. The private, Catholic liberal arts college is over 100 years old.

Carroll College students have among the best test scores of those at any four year Montana college or university. Students’ average score is a composite 25 on the ACT, ranking first in the state, and 1170 on the combined reading and math SAT, ranking second behind Montana State University.

With an annual net price of $32,145, Creighton University in Omaha is the most expensive college in Nebraska by nearly $6,000. It is a Jesuit, Catholic university with educational programs in fields like health, law, business, and more.

Creighton University students perform better on standardized tests than those at any other college in Nebraska, with a combined English and math score on the SAT of 1250, and a composite ACT score of 27.

Chamberlain University-Nevada is one of 22 Chamberlain campuses across the country. This university system focuses primarily on educating people who want to become nurses or get into some sort of health care profession.

Though Chamberlain University-Nevada costs nearly $35,000 per year to attend, just over half of students — 51.0% — receive some kind of financial aid. On average, nearly two-thirds of students get some kind of grant in schools nationwide.

Southern New Hampshire University is a popular online college with well over 100,000 students, though some still attend classes on campus. With an annual net price among students receiving financial aid of nearly $40,000, it is the most expensive school in the state by over $5,000.

Though SNHU is the most expensive four-year school in New Hampshire, its students are the least likely of the state’s 14 colleges to receive financial aid. Just 52% of undergraduates receive some kind of financial aid, compared to 65% of undergraduates overall.

Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken ranks as the most expensive school in New Jersey by over $7,000. It offers majors in engineering, science, and business. Students receiving aid pay an average of $40,770 for tuition, books, room and board, minus any financial aid.

Stevens Institute of Technology students have among the best standardized test scores of any college in the country. The typical student has an SAT score of 1405, combining reading and math scores, and the typical composite ACT score is 32.

Southwest University of Visual Arts-Albuquerque currently ranks as the most expensive school in New Mexico, with an annual net cost of $36,411. However, it is about to cease operations and shut down after the fall 2020 semester because of “reduction in enrollment due to COVID-19 as well as ongoing litigation with SUVA’s founders,” according to a post on the school’s website.

Southwest University of Visual Arts-Albuquerque is not only one of the smallest schools on this list by enrollment, but also one of the smallest in the entire country, with just 48 enrolled undergraduate students.

The New School in Manhattan is one of just a handful of colleges in the country with an annual net price of more than $50,000, edging out many other pricey New York City schools as the most expensive school in New York state.

The New School offers 134 possible majors in its design school, liberal arts college, and performing arts college. More than 30% of The New School attendees are from outside the U.S.

High Point University is a private Christian college located near the center of North Carolina. With an annual net price of $38,745, it is the most expensive of the 58 four-year colleges in the state and 79% of enrollees get some sort of grant aid from government or institutional sources.

Nearly three-quarters of applicants are admitted to High Point University, compared to an average acceptance rate of 56.7% across schools nationwide.

Though the University of Jamestown is the most expensive four-year college in North Dakota, its annual net price is almost in line with the average cost at other American private universities. The average net price at private colleges nationwide is $19,220.

The school offers degrees in a variety of fields such as kinesiology, education, business, chemistry, history, and more.

Oberlin College is a liberal arts school as well as a music conservatory located in northern Ohio. Like many of the other music conservatories on this list, Oberlin College has an annual net price of more than $40,000, making it the most expensive four-year college in Ohio by more than $5,000.

Oberlin College is one of the more selective colleges, accepting just 36.4% of applicants — more than 20 percentage points lower than the acceptance rate of the typical U.S. college.

Though Oklahoma Wesleyan University is the most expensive college in the state, its $24,501 annual net price is lower than the vast majority of other schools on this list. For context, the typical private college in the country has a net price of $19,220.

OWU is located in the northeastern part of Oklahoma. It offers online and in person classes in fields like pastoral ministry, marketing, business administration, and more.

Like many other states, the most expensive college in Oregon is an art school. Pacific Northwest College of Art has an annual net price of over $37,000. The Portland school is relatively small with fewer than 500 students.

Pacific Northwest College of Art offers 11 different art-focused majors such as graphic design, painting, photography, and sculpture.

The University of the Arts in Philadelphia has an annual net price of $41,658, making it the only one of Pennsylvania’s more than 100 colleges to cost over $40,000 per year.

The University of the Arts’ students have over two dozen majors to choose from, including screenwriting, wood / furniture, music composition, creative writing, dance, and more.

Bryant University is located in Smithfield in northern Rhode Island. The school has a college of business and a college of arts and sciences, and students can major in fields like mathematics, communications, economic, sociology, and more.

Bryant University is the only Rhode Island college with a net cost over $40,000 per year, narrowly edging out Rhode Island School of Design to be the most expensive higher learning institution in the state.

Furman University is a nearly 200-year-old private liberal arts school located in Greenville, South Carolina. With students paying $35,621 for tuition, books, room and board, minus any financial aid, making it the most expensive four-year college in the state. Of all students, 94% of students receive some kind of grant aid, compared to 65% at the average American college or university.

Furman University students have the best standardized test scores of any college in South Carolina, with the typical pupil scoring a 1320 combined on the math and reading SAT tests and a 30 on the composite ACT.

Augustana University is one of just 13 four-year colleges in South Dakota. Though it ranks as the most expensive in the state, its annual net price of $24,481 is one of the lowest on this list, and is not much higher than the average $19,220 cost of a private university.

Augustana University, a private Lutheran college in Sioux Falls, admits 66.9% of applicants, compared to an average 56.7% acceptance rate among American four-year colleges.

At Belmont University, the annual net price of attendance, which includes tuition and fees, books and supplies, and on-campus room and board minus any form of financial aid, is nearly $37,000, making it the most expensive school in Tennessee.

Belmont University is a private Christian school located just south of the Cumberland River in Nashville. Some of its most popular majors are business, management, and marketing, among others.

Southern Methodist University, located in Dallas, is the most expensive college out of the 90 four-year colleges in the state of Texas. It is home to the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum. It ranks as one of the 100 best colleges in the country, according to U.S. News and World Reports.

SMU is one of the more selective schools on this list, and indeed in the entire country, accepting just 47.3% of applicants. Nationwide, the typical college accepts 56.7% of students who apply. Students pay over $40,000 for tuition, books, room and board, minus any financial aid.

Neumont College of Computer Science is the most expensive of the 11 four-year schools in Utah, with an annual net price — including room, board, tuition, and textbooks and minus any financial aid — of $27,881. The school offers six technology-focused majors: computer science, software and game development, web design and development, information systems, business technology management, and software engineering.

Unlike most other schools on this list, Neumont College of Computer Science is a for-profit school. It also has one of the highest acceptance rates of schools that rank as the most expensive in their state, admitting over 90% of applicants.

Bennington College, located in the southwestern corner of Vermont, ranks as the most expensive school in the state, with students paying over $38,000 for tuition, books, room and board, minus any financial aid. Some 93% of students receive some kind of grant aid, compared to 65% at the typical college.

A private liberal arts school, Bennington College offers majors in fields such as cultural studies, literature, music, science and mathematics, visual arts, and more.

Virginia is home to more than 50 four-year colleges and universities, though none costs more per year than Hampden-Sydney College, at an annual net price of nearly $35,000 among the 99% of students who receive some kind of grant aid to help with costs.

Hampden-Sydney College is a men’s only liberal arts college. It is one of the oldest high learning institutions in the country, having been founded in 1775.

Whitman College, a liberal arts school located in Walla Walla, is Washington’s most expensive school, with an annual net price of $41,822 among students who receive financial aid. It is also one of Washington’s most selective schools, admitting less than 56% of applicants.

Whitman College students are tied with those of the University of Washington – Seattle for the best standardized test scores in the state. Whitman students score a combined 1340 on the SAT and a 30 on the ACT.

Though the University of Charleston ranks as the most expensive college in West Virginia, it is one of the least expensive on this list, with an annual net price for students receiving financial aid of less than $22,000. The school accepted only half of its most recent batch of applicants, compared to a 56.7% acceptance rate at the typical American college.

The school offers dozens of majors, many in STEM fields like computing and technology, health care, science, and more.

Marquette University is a private, Catholic institution in Milwaukee. It ranks as Wisconsin’s most expensive school with an annual net price — including room, board, tuition, and textbooks and minus any financial aid — for those students receiving financial aid of $34,120 — nearly $6,000 per year more than the next most expensive school in the state.

The school has colleges of arts and sciences, business, communication, education, engineering, and dentistry. Marquette’s 83% acceptance rate is much higher than the average rate for a U.S. college of 56.7%.

As the only qualifying four-year college in the state, the University of Wyoming in Laramie ranks as the state’s most expensive college by default. A public university, it is by far the least expensive college on this list, with an annual net price for those receiving financial aid of less than $12,000. The University of Wyoming admits 96% of applicants.

The school offers degree fields in a number of common areas of study, including business, education, law, agriculture, and more.