Methodology

All prices come from one source: the U.S. National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), Institutional Characteristics. Academic-year charges are for 2023-24 (IPEDS status: file published by NCES on 2024-08-20; provisional/final status not independently confirmed). The school directory (names, locations, type) is from HD2024 (institutional directory, 2024-25 collection).

• Charges file: IC2023_AY (academic-year charges for the 2023-24 academic year)
• Directory file: HD2024 (institutional directory, 2024-25 collection)
• Download pages: https://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/use-the-data
• Retrieved: 2026-11-09

Which year and why

The 2024-25 charges moved to the new IPEDS Cost (CST) component, scheduled as provisional data in the winter 2024-25 release; no downloadable file was found on 2026-11-09, so 2023-24 is the latest charges year used. The 2023-24 charges are the newest in the files this site uses; a school's 2025-26 prices may be higher. Always check the school's own website for the current year.

Which schools are included

Schools that are active in IPEDS, participate in federal student aid (Title IV), offer undergraduate programs, and are two-year or four-year institutions, in the 50 states and the District of Columbia (which is not a state). Less-than-two-year schools and U.S. territories are not covered. Types are public, private nonprofit and private for-profit, and 2-year or 4-year, as classified by IPEDS.

What the prices mean

• Tuition and fees: the published charge for a full academic year for full-time undergraduates, for in-state and out-of-state students. Tuition and required fees are also shown separately when reported.
• Total cost of attendance: computed by this site as tuition and fees + books and supplies + food and housing + other expenses (on campus or off campus, not with family). It is shown only when all four components are reported for that school; it is never used in place of tuition and fees.
• These are sticker prices before grants, scholarships and discounts. They are not net prices, bills or offers.

Which pages exist

A school gets its own page only when the source reports at least one tuition figure (in-state, out-of-state, in-district tuition or tuition and fees). Schools with no reported tuition figure appear in the school list as "not reported" and have no page, so no page shows an empty or zero table. Of 3,799 schools covered by this site, 3,188 have a page.

Missing values

A value the source leaves blank is shown as "not reported". It is never shown as $0. A $0 appears only if the source reports $0 (for example, a tuition-free college).

Medians, averages and rankings

Medians and averages are taken across schools that report the figure (not weighted by enrollment) and are shown only for groups with at least 3 such schools; otherwise "n/a". Rankings put the lowest median first among the 50 states and DC (51 areas). "Bordering states" share a land border; states that touch only at a corner are not counted. Alaska and Hawaii have no land neighbors, so they are compared with the two areas ranked just above and below.

Limits

IPEDS data are reported by the schools themselves. Programs with special pricing (graduate, professional, online, per-credit) are not shown. Cost of living and aid are not adjusted for. Where this site and the school or IPEDS differ, the source is correct.

Official tools

For official lookups use NCES College Navigator and the U.S. Department of Education's College Scorecard. This site is not those tools and is not affiliated with them.