Florida 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

Florida median public in-state tuition is $3,110, about -43.6% vs the national median. Versus the Southeast region, tuition is -37.7%.

Median graduate debt is $13,000 (-3.2% below the U.S. median of $13,432, and -8.3% 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: #19 nationally of 48 (lower debt = better rank); #3 in Southeast of 12 (1 = lowest median debt).

On published in-state tuition, Florida ranks #5 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 Florida are $49,137, about -9.6% vs the U.S. campus median ($54,323).

The median campus reports 82.9% 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% (-5.0 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 75.6% 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 5.5% (U.S. 5.0%); 3-yr repayment progress 65.9% (U.S. 73.7%). 3-yr default is omitted when most campuses report suppressed zeros.

Nationally, Florida ranks earnings #35 and employment proxy #39 on these outcome medians (1 = best).

Top employment-outcome campuses in this extract include West Coast University-Miami (93.6%), Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (89.6%), University of Florida-Online (88.7%), University of Florida (88.7%), Florida State University (88.5%), Florida College (87.9%), University of North Florida (87.1%), Edward Waters University (87.1%), Bethune-Cookman University (86.9%), Jacksonville University (86.7%)—useful anchors for local reporting on where graduates are most often working rather than still enrolled.

Completion & workforce context

Within Florida, sector medians diverge: Private for-profit median 10-yr earnings $34,657 (10 campuses); Private nonprofit median 10-yr earnings $48,685 (35 campuses); Public median 10-yr earnings $57,244 (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 Florida is 53.6% (national institution average about 50.3%).

National Student Clearinghouse data cite roughly 1,606,236 residents with some college but no credential in Florida (YoY change 2.90%). That stock of incomplete credentials sits alongside the completion and employment metrics above.