Oregon 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

Oregon median public in-state tuition is $6,345, about +15.1% vs the national median. Versus the Far West region, tuition is +93.2%.

Median graduate debt is $13,595 (+1.2% above the U.S. median of $13,432, and +15.7% vs the Far West regional median of $11,750). Low sticker prices do not always mean low borrowing—living costs, time-to-degree, and aid mix matter.

Student debt rank: #26 nationally of 48 (lower debt = better rank); #4 in Far West of 5 (1 = lowest median debt).

On published in-state tuition, Oregon ranks #34 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 Oregon are $60,172, about +10.8% vs the U.S. campus median ($54,323).

The median campus reports 89.5% 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% (+1.6 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 79.5% 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 76.2% (U.S. 73.7%). 3-yr default is omitted when most campuses report suppressed zeros.

Nationally, Oregon ranks earnings #10 and employment proxy #25 on these outcome medians (1 = best).

Top employment-outcome campuses in this extract include Oregon Health & Science University (94.7%), Linfield University (94.0%), University of Portland (93.5%), Pacific University (92.9%), Western Oregon University (91.0%), George Fox University (90.9%), Oregon Institute of Technology (90.8%), University of Oregon (90.4%), Oregon State University-Cascades Campus (89.9%), Oregon State University (89.9%)—useful anchors for local reporting on where graduates are most often working rather than still enrolled.

Completion & workforce context

Within Oregon, sector medians diverge: Private nonprofit median 10-yr earnings $59,761 (11 campuses); Public median 10-yr earnings $61,324 (9 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 Oregon is 55.1% (national institution average about 50.3%).

National Student Clearinghouse data cite roughly 675,648 residents with some college but no credential in Oregon (YoY change 0.80%). That stock of incomplete credentials sits alongside the completion and employment metrics above.