Ranked

880 the most expensive universities in the US

Ranked on total cost of attendance — tuition, fees, housing and living costs as the institution reports them.

#UniversityIn-stateCost of attendance BorrowPaying downSATAcceptance
1 Pepperdine University Malibu, California $69,918 $93,512 37% 74% 1384 63%
2 Northwestern University Evanston, Illinois $68,322 $91,250 17% 87% 1533 8%
3 University of Chicago Chicago, Illinois $70,662 $90,360 5% 87% 1554 4%
4 University of Southern California Los Angeles, California $72,097 $90,300 24% 80% 1495 10%
5 Harvey Mudd College Claremont, California $68,613 $90,165 33% — 1545 13%
6 Vanderbilt University Nashville, Tennessee $67,498 $89,590 10% 84% 1549 6%
7 Barnard College New York, New York $69,888 $89,538 26% 87% 1520 9%
8 University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, Pennsylvania $68,686 $89,028 10% 84% 1553 5%
9 Wesleyan University Middletown, Connecticut $70,342 $89,020 16% 88% 1501 16%
10 Georgetown University Washington, District of Columbia $68,017 $88,741 18% 88% 1487 13%
11 Tufts University Medford, Massachusetts $70,704 $88,300 19% 91% 1513 11%
12 Yale University New Haven, Connecticut $67,250 $88,300 5% 86% 1534 4%
13 Cornell University Ithaca, New York $69,314 $88,140 18% 87% 1535 9%
14 Stanford University Stanford, California $65,910 $87,833 6% 90% 1553 4%
15 Dartmouth College Hanover, New Hampshire $68,268 $87,793 12% 87% 1534 5%
16 Brown University Providence, Rhode Island $71,412 $87,648 10% 87% 1546 5%
17 Amherst College Amherst, Massachusetts $70,480 $87,640 8% 80% 1533 9%
18 Kenyon College Gambier, Ohio $71,520 $87,590 21% 87% 1429 31%
19 Wake Forest University Winston-Salem, North Carolina $67,642 $87,499 14% 88% 1475 22%
20 Vassar College Poughkeepsie, New York $71,030 $87,419 39% 93% 1494 19%
21 Oberlin College Oberlin, Ohio $67,366 $87,404 31% 82% 1447 34%
22 Bennington College Bennington, Vermont $66,262 $87,284 50% 74% 1364 45%
23 Duke University Durham, North Carolina $68,758 $87,072 14% 89% 1548 6%
24 Colgate University Hamilton, New York $70,306 $87,070 12% 86% 1508 14%
25 Washington & Lee University Lexington, Virginia $68,045 $87,000 14% 88% 1498 14%
26 Colorado College Colorado Springs, Colorado $70,734 $86,921 26% 89% 1365 18%
27 California Institute of Technology Pasadena, California $65,898 $86,886 4% — — 3%
28 Claremont McKenna College Claremont, California $67,980 $86,500 21% — 1527 10%
29 Pitzer College Claremont, California $65,192 $86,466 20% 84% — 25%
30 Brandeis University Waltham, Massachusetts $68,080 $86,448 28% 83% 1462 41%
31 Reed College Portland, Oregon $69,350 $86,376 40% 85% 1437 25%
32 Wellesley College Wellesley, Massachusetts $67,176 $86,290 16% 90% 1520 14%
33 Boston University Boston, Massachusetts $68,102 $86,285 23% 82% 1480 11%
34 University of Miami Coral Gables, Florida $62,616 $86,078 27% 73% 1415 19%
35 Smith College Northampton, Massachusetts $65,178 $86,030 14% 82% 1500 21%
36 University of Rochester Rochester, New York $67,080 $85,962 40% 80% 1488 40%
37 Johns Hopkins University Baltimore, Maryland $65,230 $85,947 9% 82% 1553 6%
38 Middlebury College Middlebury, Vermont $67,600 $85,880 23% 88% 1508 11%
39 Case Western Reserve University Cleveland, Ohio $66,608 $85,851 47% 85% 1513 37%
40 Franklin and Marshall College Lancaster, Pennsylvania $70,794 $85,776 44% 85% 1392 28%

Questions

Most expensive in the US: which university leads?
Pepperdine University — $93,512 total cost of attendance.
Where does this data come from?
The US Department of Education College Scorecard, which publishes what institutions charge, what students borrow and repay, and the test scores of admitted students. Nothing here is estimated — universities without a published figure are left out of the ranking.
Is the cheapest university the best value?
Not necessarily. Price is one half of value; the other is what graduates earn and whether they clear the debt. Each university page links to its earnings and repayment record.
All university data Cheapest tuition Best loan repayment Fewest borrowers Highest SAT Highest acceptance

Source: US Department of Education College Scorecard. Universities without a published figure for the ranked measure are not listed.