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 $4,728, about -14.2% vs the national median. Versus the Southeast region, tuition is -5.3%.

Median graduate debt is $13,521 (+0.7% above the U.S. median of $13,432, and -4.6% 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: #25 nationally of 48 (lower debt = better rank); #6 in Southeast of 12 (1 = lowest median debt).

On published in-state tuition, Kentucky ranks #14 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 $45,500, about -16.2% vs the U.S. campus median ($54,323).

The median campus reports 90.2% 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% (+2.3 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 74.3% 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 7.6% (U.S. 5.0%); 3-yr repayment progress 68.9% (U.S. 73.7%). 3-yr default is omitted when most campuses report suppressed zeros.

Nationally, Kentucky ranks earnings #45 and employment proxy #17 on these outcome medians (1 = best).

Top employment-outcome campuses in this extract include Georgetown College (93.4%), Bellarmine University (93.0%), Thomas More University (92.9%), Kentucky Wesleyan College (92.3%), Transylvania University (92.2%), Northern Kentucky University (92.1%), University of Kentucky (91.9%), Spalding University (91.8%), University of Louisville (91.4%), Union Commonwealth University (90.8%)—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 $45,268 (20 campuses); Public median 10-yr earnings $45,266 (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 50.4% (national institution average about 50.3%).

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.