Missouri 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

Missouri median public in-state tuition is $7,584, about +37.6% vs the national median. Versus the Plains region, tuition is +21.8%.

Median graduate debt is $17,500 (+30.3% above the U.S. median of $13,432, and 0.0% vs the Plains regional median of $17,500). Low sticker prices do not always mean low borrowing—living costs, time-to-degree, and aid mix matter.

Student debt rank: #37 nationally of 48 (lower debt = better rank); #4 in Plains of 7 (1 = lowest median debt).

On published in-state tuition, Missouri ranks #44 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 Missouri are $48,991, about -9.8% 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 70.8% 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 5.9% (U.S. 5.0%); 3-yr repayment progress 71.5% (U.S. 73.7%). 3-yr default is omitted when most campuses report suppressed zeros.

Nationally, Missouri ranks earnings #36 and employment proxy #10 on these outcome medians (1 = best).

Top employment-outcome campuses in this extract include Rockhurst University (95.6%), Truman State University (94.7%), William Jewell College (94.5%), Missouri University of Science and Technology (94.4%), Westminster College (94.3%), Maryville University of Saint Louis (94.3%), University of Missouri-Columbia (94.2%), Northwest Missouri State University (93.7%), Saint Louis University (93.7%), Central Methodist University-College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (93.4%)—useful anchors for local reporting on where graduates are most often working rather than still enrolled.

Completion & workforce context

Within Missouri, sector medians diverge: Private nonprofit median 10-yr earnings $48,825 (36 campuses); Public median 10-yr earnings $49,560 (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 Missouri is 52.4% (national institution average about 50.3%).

National Student Clearinghouse data cite roughly 672,518 residents with some college but no credential in Missouri (YoY change 7.80%). That stock of incomplete credentials sits alongside the completion and employment metrics above.