Connecticut 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

Connecticut median public in-state tuition is $13,928, about +152.7% vs the national median. Versus the New England region, tuition is +48.1%.

Median graduate debt is $12,541 (-6.6% below the U.S. median of $13,432, and -33.7% vs the New England regional median of $18,927). Low sticker prices do not always mean low borrowing—living costs, time-to-degree, and aid mix matter.

Student debt rank: #18 nationally of 48 (lower debt = better rank); #1 in New England of 4 (1 = lowest median debt).

On published in-state tuition, Connecticut ranks #48 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 Connecticut are $64,209, about +18.2% vs the U.S. campus median ($54,323).

The median campus reports 28.2% 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% (-59.8 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 83.0% 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 3.2% (U.S. 5.0%); 3-yr repayment progress 79.5% (U.S. 73.7%). 3-yr default is omitted when most campuses report suppressed zeros.

Nationally, Connecticut ranks earnings #3 and employment proxy #48 on these outcome medians (1 = best).

Top employment-outcome campuses in this extract include Yale University (73.2%), Post University (57.6%), Wesleyan University (55.8%), Connecticut College (38.2%), Trinity College (36.8%), University of New Haven (34.2%), Quinnipiac University (32.4%), Charter Oak State College (31.5%), Fairfield University (31.5%), University of Hartford (28.7%)—useful anchors for local reporting on where graduates are most often working rather than still enrolled.

Completion & workforce context

Within Connecticut, sector medians diverge: Private nonprofit median 10-yr earnings $73,897 (14 campuses); Public median 10-yr earnings $69,103 (11 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 Connecticut is 64.9% (national institution average about 50.3%).

National Student Clearinghouse data cite roughly 350,307 residents with some college but no credential in Connecticut (YoY change 1.10%). That stock of incomplete credentials sits alongside the completion and employment metrics above.