Alabama 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

Alabama median public in-state tuition is $5,340, about -3.1% vs the national median. Versus the Southeast region, tuition is +7.0%.

Median graduate debt is $21,000 (+56.3% above the U.S. median of $13,432, and +48.2% vs the Southeast regional median of $14,173). Low sticker prices do not always mean low borrowing—living costs, time-to-degree, and aid mix matter.

Student debt rank: #50 nationally of 48 (lower debt = better rank); #12 in Southeast of 12 (1 = lowest median debt).

On published in-state tuition, Alabama ranks #22 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 Alabama are $44,391, about -18.3% vs the U.S. campus median ($54,323).

The median campus reports 90.0% 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% (+2.1 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 70.6% 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 7.7% (U.S. 5.0%); 3-yr repayment progress 58.2% (U.S. 73.7%). 3-yr default is omitted when most campuses report suppressed zeros.

Nationally, Alabama ranks earnings #49 and employment proxy #19 on these outcome medians (1 = best).

Top employment-outcome campuses in this extract include Samford University (93.2%), Huntingdon College (93.0%), Stillman College (92.6%), Spring Hill College (92.6%), Auburn University (92.3%), University of Mobile (91.5%), University of West Alabama (91.3%), Tuskegee University (90.7%), University of North Alabama (90.6%), University of Alabama at Birmingham (90.6%)—useful anchors for local reporting on where graduates are most often working rather than still enrolled.

Completion & workforce context

Within Alabama, sector medians diverge: Private for-profit median 10-yr earnings $40,092 (3 campuses); Private nonprofit median 10-yr earnings $43,534 (12 campuses); Public median 10-yr earnings $45,325 (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 Alabama is 43.3% (national institution average about 50.3%).

National Student Clearinghouse data cite roughly 461,681 residents with some college but no credential in Alabama (YoY change 2.30%). That stock of incomplete credentials sits alongside the completion and employment metrics above.