The cost of a college education can be prohibitively expensive for many students. As of 2019, a student would have to pay an average net price of $9,915 to attend a four-year public college, and $19,220 to attend a non-profit private school, after financial aid is factored in.
While the cost of college has increased virtually everywhere, certain schools stand out as being especially expensive. Whether it is because of their selective admissions standards, unique programs offered, or notable faculty, there are hundreds of schools that charge tens of thousands of dollars per year.
Each state is home to at least one school with an average net price of more than $12,000 per year. Smaller states tend to have fewer universities, and those they do have tend to have lower fees and tuition.
The vast majority of schools that rank as the most expensive in their state are private schools. While many of these are liberal arts colleges, a number of institutions on this list are art schools or music conservatories. Though these schools cost tens of thousands of dollars per year, those with fine arts degrees tend to earn much less than those with other types of college education. These are the college majors that pay off the least.
Virginia is home to more than 50 four-year colleges and universities, though none costs more per year than Hampden-Sydney College, at an annual net price of nearly $35,000 among the 99% of students who receive some kind of grant aid to help with costs.
Hampden-Sydney College is a men’s only liberal arts college. It is one of the oldest high learning institutions in the country, having been founded in 1775.
To identify the most expensive college in every state, 24/7 Wall St. used data from the National Center for Education Statistics to rank all bachelor’s degree-granting schools based on net price — the annual cost of tuition, books, room and board, minus any financial aid — for full-time, first-time degree-seeking undergraduates students who received grant or scholarship aid for the 2018-19 school year. This is the most expensive college in every state.
State College Avg. net price ($) City Undergraduate enrollment Alabama Tuskegee University 33,420 Tuskegee 2,394 Alaska Alaska Pacific University 20,426 Anchorage 337 Arizona Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University-Prescott 36,962 Prescott 2,894 Arkansas John Brown University 21,912 Siloam Springs 1,777 California California Institute of the Arts 54,594 Valencia 1,021 Colorado University of Denver 37,263 Denver 5,774 Connecticut Quinnipiac University 41,636 Hamden 6,845 Delaware Wesley College 24,705 Dover 1,035 Florida Ringling College of Art and Design 52,384 Sarasota 1,658 Georgia Savannah College of Art and Design 44,460 Savannah 12,167 Hawaii Hawaii Pacific University 27,281 Honolulu 3,695 Idaho Boise Bible College 21,315 Boise 95 Illinois School of the Art Institute of Chicago 50,167 Chicago 2,983 Indiana Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology 45,356 Terre Haute 2,000 Iowa Clarke University 34,424 Dubuque 685 Kansas Cleveland University-Kansas City 35,246 Overland Park 74 Kentucky The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary 26,976 Louisville 894 Louisiana Tulane University of Louisiana 40,783 New Orleans 7,980 Maine University of New England 34,198 Biddeford 4,275 Maryland Maryland Institute College of Art 42,750 Baltimore 1,749 Massachusetts The New England Conservatory of Music 46,620 Boston 497 Michigan Kettering University 39,255 Flint 1,799 Minnesota Carleton College 31,547 Northfield 2,115 Mississippi Millsaps College 24,457 Jackson 779 Missouri Conception Seminary College 35,288 Conception 47 Montana Carroll College 25,187 Helena 1,216 Nebraska Creighton University 32,145 Omaha 4,472 Nevada Chamberlain University-Nevada 34,928 Las Vegas 384 New Hampshire Southern New Hampshire University 39,743 Manchester 92,902 New Jersey Stevens Institute of Technology 40,770 Hoboken 3,659 New Mexico St. John’s College 24,787 Santa Fe 317 New York The New School 50,377 New York 7,409 North Carolina High Point University 38,745 High Point 4,591 North Dakota University of Jamestown 19,695 Jamestown 908 Ohio Oberlin College 43,612 Oberlin 2,846 Oklahoma Oklahoma Wesleyan University 24,501 Bartlesville 864 Oregon Pacific Northwest College of Art 37,252 Portland 514 Pennsylvania The University of the Arts 41,658 Philadelphia 1,699 Puerto Rico Universidad Politecnica de Puerto Rico 16,304 Hato Rey 3,690 Rhode Island Bryant University 40,038 Smithfield 3,259 South Carolina Furman University 35,621 Greenville 2,688 South Dakota Augustana University 24,481 Sioux Falls 1,818 Tennessee Belmont University 36,976 Nashville 6,820 Texas Southern Methodist University 40,404 Dallas 6,710 Utah Neumont College of Computer Science 27,881 Salt Lake City 474 Vermont Bennington College 38,386 Bennington 729 Virginia Hampden-Sydney College 34,853 Hampden-Sydney 993 Washington Whitman College 41,822 Walla Walla 1,579 West Virginia University of Charleston 21,941 Charleston 1,907 Wisconsin Marquette University 34,120 Milwaukee 8,515 Wyoming University of Wyoming 12,880 Laramie 9,807
