Massachusetts 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

Massachusetts median public in-state tuition is $6,732, about +22.1% vs the national median. Versus the New England region, tuition is -28.4%.

Median graduate debt is $21,974 (+63.6% above the U.S. median of $13,432, and +16.1% 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: #51 nationally of 48 (lower debt = better rank); #4 in New England of 4 (1 = lowest median debt).

On published in-state tuition, Massachusetts ranks #38 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 Massachusetts are $63,494, about +16.9% vs the U.S. campus median ($54,323).

The median campus reports 21.8% of its 8-year cohort as working and not enrolled—our closest federal proxy to a placement rate. The U.S. campus median is 87.9% (-66.2 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 83.9% 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 3.7% (U.S. 5.0%); 3-yr repayment progress 82.2% (U.S. 73.7%). 3-yr default is omitted when most campuses report suppressed zeros.

Nationally, Massachusetts ranks earnings #5 and employment proxy #50 on these outcome medians (1 = best).

Top employment-outcome campuses in this extract include Massachusetts Institute of Technology (79.1%), Wellesley College (69.6%), Berklee College of Music (64.6%), Harvard University (64.4%), Amherst College (59.3%), Williams College (56.5%), Smith College (51.1%), Mount Holyoke College (49.4%), Tufts University (49.2%), Boston University (47.8%)—useful anchors for local reporting on where graduates are most often working rather than still enrolled.

Completion & workforce context

Within Massachusetts, sector medians diverge: Private nonprofit median 10-yr earnings $65,766 (51 campuses); Public median 10-yr earnings $57,466 (13 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 Massachusetts is 66.7% (national institution average about 50.3%).

National Student Clearinghouse data cite roughly 675,920 residents with some college but no credential in Massachusetts (YoY change 2.30%). That stock of incomplete credentials sits alongside the completion and employment metrics above.