California 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

California median public in-state tuition is $1,350, about -75.5% vs the national median. Versus the Far West region, tuition is -58.9%.

Median graduate debt is $11,400 (-15.1% below the U.S. median of $13,432, and -3.0% 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: #15 nationally of 48 (lower debt = better rank); #2 in Far West of 5 (1 = lowest median debt).

On published in-state tuition, California ranks #1 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 California are $65,986, about +21.5% vs the U.S. campus median ($54,323).

The median campus reports 90.1% of its 8-year cohort as working and not enrolled—our closest federal proxy to a placement rate. The U.S. campus median is 87.9% (+2.1 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 84.0% 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 3.9% (U.S. 5.0%); 3-yr repayment progress 74.5% (U.S. 73.7%). 3-yr default is omitted when most campuses report suppressed zeros.

Nationally, California ranks earnings #2 and employment proxy #18 on these outcome medians (1 = best).

Top employment-outcome campuses in this extract include California State University Maritime Academy (94.8%), Westmont College (94.2%), California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo (94.1%), Samuel Merritt University (93.8%), Loma Linda University (93.6%), West Coast University-Ontario (93.6%), West Coast University-Orange County (93.6%), West Coast University-Los Angeles (93.6%), University of the Pacific (93.5%), Saint Mary's College of California (92.7%)—useful anchors for local reporting on where graduates are most often working rather than still enrolled.

Completion & workforce context

Within California, sector medians diverge: Private for-profit median 10-yr earnings $51,017 (15 campuses); Private nonprofit median 10-yr earnings $68,712 (66 campuses); Public median 10-yr earnings $64,909 (33 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 California is 58.5% (national institution average about 50.3%).

National Student Clearinghouse data cite roughly 5,941,080 residents with some college but no credential in California (YoY change 1.90%). That stock of incomplete credentials sits alongside the completion and employment metrics above.