Mississippi 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

Mississippi median public in-state tuition is $4,200, about -23.8% vs the national median. Versus the Southeast region, tuition is -15.9%.

Median graduate debt is $9,722 (-27.6% below the U.S. median of $13,432, and -31.4% 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: #5 nationally of 48 (lower debt = better rank); #1 in Southeast of 12 (1 = lowest median debt).

On published in-state tuition, Mississippi ranks #10 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 Mississippi are $42,539, about -21.7% vs the U.S. campus median ($54,323).

The median campus reports 90.5% 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% (+2.5 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 72.1% 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 8.6% (U.S. 5.0%); 3-yr repayment progress 64.9% (U.S. 73.7%). 3-yr default is omitted when most campuses report suppressed zeros.

Nationally, Mississippi ranks earnings #50 and employment proxy #14 on these outcome medians (1 = best).

Top employment-outcome campuses in this extract include Mississippi College (93.2%), Millsaps College (92.7%), Delta State University (92.1%), Mississippi State University (92.1%), Mississippi University for Women (91.9%), University of Mississippi (91.2%), University of Southern Mississippi (90.7%), Jackson State University (90.5%), Mississippi Valley State University (90.4%), Alcorn State University (90.0%)—useful anchors for local reporting on where graduates are most often working rather than still enrolled.

Completion & workforce context

Within Mississippi, sector medians diverge: Private nonprofit median 10-yr earnings $43,087 (7 campuses); Public median 10-yr earnings $43,066 (8 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 Mississippi is 48.3% (national institution average about 50.3%).

National Student Clearinghouse data cite roughly 325,451 residents with some college but no credential in Mississippi (YoY change 1.90%). That stock of incomplete credentials sits alongside the completion and employment metrics above.