Utah 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

Utah median public in-state tuition is $6,507, about +18.1% vs the national median. Versus the Rocky Mountains region, tuition is +32.5%.

Median graduate debt is $10,548 (-20.5% below the U.S. median of $13,271, and -0.1% vs the Rocky Mountains regional median of $10,555). Low sticker prices do not always mean low borrowing—living costs, time-to-degree, and aid mix matter.

Student debt rank: #9 nationally of 48 (lower debt = better rank); #2 in Rocky Mountains of 5 (1 = lowest median debt).

On published in-state tuition, Utah ranks #35 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 Utah are $54,022, about -0.7% vs the U.S. campus median ($54,384).

The median campus reports 85.4% 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% (-2.6 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 68.8% 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 5.2% (U.S. 5.0%); 3-yr repayment progress 81.2% (U.S. 73.7%). 3-yr default is omitted when most campuses report suppressed zeros.

Nationally, Utah ranks earnings #26 and employment proxy #36 on these outcome medians (1 = best).

Top employment-outcome campuses in this extract include University of Utah (89.7%), Nightingale College (88.1%), Westminster University (87.1%), Western Governors University (86.6%), Southern Utah University (85.8%), Utah State University (85.0%), Provo College (83.3%), Brigham Young University (81.1%)—useful anchors for local reporting on where graduates are most often working rather than still enrolled.

Completion & workforce context

Within Utah, sector medians diverge: Private for-profit median 10-yr earnings $37,518 (5 campuses); Private nonprofit median 10-yr earnings $66,215 (4 campuses); Public median 10-yr earnings $54,022 (3 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 Utah is 51.0% (national institution average about 50.3%).

National Student Clearinghouse data cite roughly 379,401 residents with some college but no credential in Utah (YoY change 3.80%). That stock of incomplete credentials sits alongside the completion and employment metrics above.