Kentucky 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

Kentucky median public in-state tuition is $4,872, about -14.5% vs the national median. Versus the Southeast region, tuition is -5.5%.

Median graduate debt is $12,582 (-6.8% below the U.S. median of $13,500, and -19.1% vs the Southeast regional median of $15,558). Low sticker prices do not always mean low borrowing—living costs, time-to-degree, and aid mix matter.

Student debt rank: #19 nationally of 48 (lower debt = better rank); #4 in Southeast of 12 (1 = lowest median debt).

On published in-state tuition, Kentucky ranks #15 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 Kentucky are $49,034, about -17.4% vs the U.S. campus median ($59,401).

The median campus reports 92.1% of its 8-year cohort as working and not enrolled—our closest federal proxy to a placement rate. The U.S. campus median is 93.0% (-0.9 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 74.7% vs a U.S. median of 76.4%—a leading indicator for completion and time-to-degree.

Loan repayment indicators at the median campus: 2-yr default 7.6% (U.S. 5.0%); 3-yr repayment progress 68.9% (U.S. 73.8%). 3-yr default is omitted when most campuses report suppressed zeros.

Nationally, Kentucky ranks earnings #48 and employment proxy #35 on these outcome medians (1 = best).

Top employment-outcome campuses in this extract include Centre College (96.6%), Thomas More University (95.8%), Bellarmine University (95.7%), University of Kentucky (93.9%), University of Louisville (93.8%), Georgetown College (93.6%), Asbury University (93.3%), Northern Kentucky University (93.3%), Galen College of Nursing-Louisville (93.2%), Murray State University (92.7%)—useful anchors for local reporting on where graduates are most often working rather than still enrolled.

Completion & workforce context

Within Kentucky, sector medians diverge: Private nonprofit median 10-yr earnings $48,552 (19 campuses); Public median 10-yr earnings $49,684 (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 Kentucky is 50.0% (national institution average about 49.3%).

National Student Clearinghouse data cite roughly 564,000 residents with some college but no credential in Kentucky (YoY change 1.20%). That stock of incomplete credentials sits alongside the completion and employment metrics above.