New Jersey 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

New Jersey median public in-state tuition is $6,300, about +14.3% vs the national median. Versus the Mid East region, tuition is -14.7%.

Median graduate debt is $11,998 (-10.7% below the U.S. median of $13,432, and -7.7% vs the Mid East regional median of $13,000). Low sticker prices do not always mean low borrowing—living costs, time-to-degree, and aid mix matter.

Student debt rank: #17 nationally of 48 (lower debt = better rank); #2 in Mid East of 5 (1 = lowest median debt).

On published in-state tuition, New Jersey ranks #33 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 New Jersey are $59,988, about +10.4% vs the U.S. campus median ($54,323).

The median campus reports 84.0% 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% (-4.0 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 78.3% 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 4.6% (U.S. 5.0%); 3-yr repayment progress 71.8% (U.S. 73.7%). 3-yr default is omitted when most campuses report suppressed zeros.

Nationally, New Jersey ranks earnings #11 and employment proxy #38 on these outcome medians (1 = best).

Top employment-outcome campuses in this extract include Rowan University (91.5%), Stockton University (90.6%), The College of New Jersey (90.3%), Bloomfield College of Montclair State University (87.2%), Montclair State University (87.2%), Georgian Court University (86.8%), Saint Elizabeth University (86.7%), Chamberlain University-New Jersey (86.5%), New Jersey Institute of Technology (86.2%), Centenary University (85.8%)—useful anchors for local reporting on where graduates are most often working rather than still enrolled.

Completion & workforce context

Within New Jersey, sector medians diverge: Private for-profit median 10-yr earnings $40,172 (4 campuses); Private nonprofit median 10-yr earnings $57,602 (17 campuses); Public median 10-yr earnings $64,478 (14 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 New Jersey is 51.4% (national institution average about 50.3%).

National Student Clearinghouse data cite roughly 757,282 residents with some college but no credential in New Jersey (YoY change 1.90%). That stock of incomplete credentials sits alongside the completion and employment metrics above.