Michigan 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

Michigan median public in-state tuition is $5,445, about -1.2% vs the national median. Versus the Great Lakes region, tuition is -3.2%.

Median graduate debt is $13,000 (-3.2% below the U.S. median of $13,432, and -7.2% vs the Great Lakes regional median of $14,004). Low sticker prices do not always mean low borrowing—living costs, time-to-degree, and aid mix matter.

Student debt rank: #21 nationally of 48 (lower debt = better rank); #2 in Great Lakes of 5 (1 = lowest median debt).

On published in-state tuition, Michigan ranks #27 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 Michigan are $55,123, about +1.5% vs the U.S. campus median ($54,323).

The median campus reports 91.3% 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% (+3.3 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 78.1% 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 5.5% (U.S. 5.0%); 3-yr repayment progress 69.5% (U.S. 73.7%). 3-yr default is omitted when most campuses report suppressed zeros.

Nationally, Michigan ranks earnings #21 and employment proxy #11 on these outcome medians (1 = best).

Top employment-outcome campuses in this extract include Albion College (95.5%), Kettering University (95.2%), Hope College (95.0%), Michigan Technological University (94.4%), Concordia University Ann Arbor (94.3%), Alma College (94.1%), The University of Olivet (93.9%), Grand Valley State University (93.6%), Michigan State University (93.6%), Central Michigan University (93.4%)—useful anchors for local reporting on where graduates are most often working rather than still enrolled.

Completion & workforce context

Within Michigan, sector medians diverge: Private nonprofit median 10-yr earnings $55,504 (26 campuses); Public median 10-yr earnings $54,735 (15 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 Michigan is 55.5% (national institution average about 50.3%).

National Student Clearinghouse data cite roughly 1,093,393 residents with some college but no credential in Michigan (YoY change 2.40%). That stock of incomplete credentials sits alongside the completion and employment metrics above.