Nebraska 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

Nebraska median public in-state tuition is $5,400, about -2.0% vs the national median. Versus the Plains region, tuition is -13.2%.

Median graduate debt is $19,500 (+46.9% above the U.S. median of $13,271, and +16.4% vs the Plains regional median of $16,750). Low sticker prices do not always mean low borrowing—living costs, time-to-degree, and aid mix matter.

Student debt rank: #43 nationally of 48 (lower debt = better rank); #6 in Plains of 7 (1 = lowest median debt).

On published in-state tuition, Nebraska ranks #24 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 Nebraska are $54,124, about -0.5% vs the U.S. campus median ($54,384).

The median campus reports 93.8% of its 8-year cohort as working and not enrolled—our closest federal proxy to a placement rate. The U.S. campus median is 88.0% (+5.8 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 75.0% vs a U.S. median of 76.4%—a leading indicator for completion and time-to-degree.

Loan repayment indicators at the median campus: 2-yr default 3.0% (U.S. 5.0%); 3-yr repayment progress 80.7% (U.S. 73.7%). 3-yr default is omitted when most campuses report suppressed zeros.

Nationally, Nebraska ranks earnings #25 and employment proxy #4 on these outcome medians (1 = best).

Top employment-outcome campuses in this extract include University of Nebraska Medical Center (96.8%), Clarkson College (96.5%), Bryan College of Health Sciences (96.0%), Hastings College (95.9%), Nebraska Methodist College of Nursing & Allied Health (95.5%), Wayne State College (94.9%), University of Nebraska-Lincoln (94.7%), University of Nebraska at Kearney (94.3%), Nebraska Wesleyan University (94.2%), Concordia University-Nebraska (93.5%)—useful anchors for local reporting on where graduates are most often working rather than still enrolled.

Completion & workforce context

Within Nebraska, sector medians diverge: Private nonprofit median 10-yr earnings $55,045 (13 campuses); Public median 10-yr earnings $50,105 (7 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 Nebraska is 52.0% (national institution average about 50.3%).

National Student Clearinghouse data cite roughly 254,908 residents with some college but no credential in Nebraska (YoY change 0.90%). That stock of incomplete credentials sits alongside the completion and employment metrics above.