Ranked

810 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 $57,146 against $22,500 of debt.

#UniversityGradeYou borrowMonthlyYou earnDebt clears in
721 Ohio Northern University Ohio B $27,000 $307 $80,928 0.7 yrs
722 DigiPen Institute of Technology Washington B $27,000 $307 $79,878 0.7 yrs
723 University of Scranton Pennsylvania B $27,000 $307 $74,652 0.8 yrs
724 Ursinus College Pennsylvania B $27,000 $307 $73,721 0.8 yrs
725 Saint Anselm College New Hampshire B $27,000 $307 $73,371 0.8 yrs
726 South Dakota School of Mines and Technology South Dakota B $27,000 $307 $72,257 0.8 yrs
727 Widener University Pennsylvania B $27,000 $307 $70,920 0.9 yrs
728 Illinois Wesleyan University Illinois B $27,000 $307 $70,871 0.9 yrs
729 DePauw University Indiana B $27,000 $307 $70,527 0.9 yrs
730 Wabash College Indiana B $27,000 $307 $69,952 0.9 yrs
731 Lawrence Technological University Michigan B $27,000 $307 $69,151 0.9 yrs
732 Hobart and William Smith Colleges New York B $27,000 $307 $68,831 0.9 yrs
733 Emmanuel College Massachusetts B $27,000 $307 $68,245 0.9 yrs
734 Washington & Jefferson College Pennsylvania B $27,000 $307 $67,918 1 yrs
735 St. Lawrence University New York C $27,000 $307 $67,258 1 yrs
736 Bradley University Illinois C $27,000 $307 $66,852 1 yrs
737 Centre College Kentucky C $27,000 $307 $66,240 1 yrs
738 Lebanon Valley College Pennsylvania C $27,000 $307 $62,621 1.2 yrs
739 Elizabethtown College Pennsylvania C $27,000 $307 $62,399 1.2 yrs
740 Allegheny College Pennsylvania C $27,000 $307 $62,069 1.2 yrs
741 La Sierra University California C $27,000 $307 $61,824 1.2 yrs
742 Susquehanna University Pennsylvania C $27,000 $307 $61,723 1.2 yrs
743 Hartwick College New York C $27,000 $307 $61,107 1.3 yrs
744 University of Hartford Connecticut C $27,000 $307 $60,823 1.3 yrs
745 University of New Haven Connecticut C $27,000 $307 $60,126 1.3 yrs
746 Saint Vincent College Pennsylvania C $27,000 $307 $59,982 1.3 yrs
747 Luther College Iowa C $27,000 $307 $59,850 1.3 yrs
748 King's College Pennsylvania C $27,000 $307 $59,498 1.4 yrs
749 Albion College Michigan C $27,000 $307 $58,799 1.4 yrs
750 Gannon University Pennsylvania C $27,000 $307 $58,845 1.4 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?
Ohio Northern University — $80,928 median earnings against $27,000 of debt, clearing in about 0.7 years.
How much do US students typically borrow?
Across the 810 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.

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.