Arizona Colleges: Tuition, Debt & Earnings (2026 stats)

Analysis & insights

EDsmart Data aggregates institution-level College Scorecard data for this profile. Highlights below compare local medians to U.S. and regional benchmarks.

Costs & borrowing

Arizona median public in-state tuition is $2,358, about -57.2% vs the national median. Versus the Southwest region, tuition is -36.0%.

Median graduate debt is $9,500 (-29.3% below the U.S. median of $13,432, and -13.7% vs the Southwest regional median of $11,012). Low sticker prices do not always mean low borrowing—living costs, time-to-degree, and aid mix matter.

Student debt rank: #2 nationally of 48 (lower debt = better rank); #1 in Southwest of 4 (1 = lowest median debt).

On published in-state tuition, Arizona ranks #3 nationally (1 = lowest median sticker among states with data).

Earnings, employment & retention

Among bachelor's-predominant campuses with ≥200 students, median 10-year earnings in Arizona are $50,719, about -6.6% vs the U.S. campus median ($54,323).

The median campus reports 81.6% of its 8-year cohort as working and not enrolled—our closest federal proxy to a placement rate. The U.S. campus median is 87.9% (-6.3 pp). Formal job-placement statistics are not published in Scorecard; treat this as a comparative outcome indicator, not a hire guarantee.

First-year, full-time retention at the median campus is 71.4% vs a U.S. median of 76.3%—a leading indicator for completion and time-to-degree.

Loan repayment indicators at the median campus: 2-yr default 7.1% (U.S. 5.0%); 3-yr repayment progress 64.8% (U.S. 73.7%). 3-yr default is omitted when most campuses report suppressed zeros.

Nationally, Arizona ranks earnings #32 and employment proxy #43 on these outcome medians (1 = best).

Top employment-outcome campuses in this extract include Northern Arizona University (89.8%), University of Arizona (89.5%), Ottawa University-Surprise (88.6%), Arizona State University Campus Immersion (87.8%), Arizona State University Digital Immersion (87.8%), Chamberlain University-Arizona (86.5%), Arizona Christian University (86.1%), Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University-Prescott (85.1%), University of Advancing Technology (81.7%), Grand Canyon University (81.5%)—useful anchors for local reporting on where graduates are most often working rather than still enrolled.

Completion & workforce context

Within Arizona, sector medians diverge: Private for-profit median 10-yr earnings $37,752 (10 campuses); Private nonprofit median 10-yr earnings $53,582 (4 campuses); Public median 10-yr earnings $61,324 (4 campuses). Public campuses often dominate enrollment while private nonprofits can show higher earnings medians at selective institutions.

Average institution-level completion rate across all sectors in Arizona is 38.6% (national institution average about 50.3%).

National Student Clearinghouse data cite roughly 726,264 residents with some college but no credential in Arizona (YoY change 4.80%). That stock of incomplete credentials sits alongside the completion and employment metrics above.