Ranked

795 US colleges ranked by student debt, lowest first

Ordered by median federal debt at graduation — smallest loan first, with what graduates go on to earn beside it. The typical graded US university clears its debt in 1.3 years on median earnings of $57,089 against $22,500 of debt.

#UniversityGradeYou borrowMonthlyYou earnDebt clears in
781 Davis & Elkins College F $27,000 $307 $43,411 6.9 yrs
782 Florida Institute of Technology F $27,000 $307 $43,137 7.5 yrs
783 Stephens College F $27,000 $307 $43,071 7.6 yrs
784 Tennessee State University F $27,000 $307 $42,730 8.4 yrs
785 Oakwood University F $27,000 $307 $42,488 9.1 yrs
786 Bethel University F $27,249 $310 $47,482 3.4 yrs
787 Morgan State University D $27,250 $310 $50,698 2.4 yrs
788 Pacific Union College B $27,500 $313 $70,484 0.9 yrs
789 Lincoln University F $28,250 $321 $43,167 7.8 yrs
790 North Carolina Central University F $28,250 $321 $42,968 8.2 yrs
791 Colorado Christian University D $28,312 $322 $50,416 2.6 yrs
792 University of Advancing Technology D $28,812 $328 $50,719 2.6 yrs
793 Norfolk State University F $29,000 $330 $44,666 5.6 yrs
794 Golden Gate University California B $29,875 $340 $87,434 0.6 yrs
795 Johnson C. Smith University F $30,000 $341 $42,680 9.5 yrs

Low debt has two very different causes

A university can leave students with little debt because it is genuinely affordable — strong institutional aid, low in-state tuition — or because so few of its students borrow that the median falls to a handful of cases. The earnings column beside it is what separates the two.

What the debt figure leaves out

It counts federal loans only. Private loans, credit cards and parent borrowing sit outside the dataset, so a family that financed college another way appears here as low debt.

Questions

Which US university tops this list?
Davis & Elkins College — $43,411 median earnings against $27,000 of debt, clearing in about 6.9 years.
How much do US students typically borrow?
Across the 795 universities we grade, median debt at graduation is $22,500 — about $256 a month on the standard ten-year federal plan.
Can scholarships change these numbers?
Directly. Every award comes off the borrowing before you ever repay it, which shortens the payback on each university page. Each page lists the scholarships we hold for that institution.
All payback rankings Fastest payback Highest earnings Scholarships that cut the debt How we calculate this

Source: US Department of Education College Scorecard. Figures cover students who received federal financial aid and blend every subject at each institution. Information only, not financial advice.