Verified Federal Data · No Paid Rankings

Best Colleges in Nebraska

Top Nebraska colleges ranked by what actually matters after graduation: earnings, completion rates, and what you actually pay. Federal data. No surveys, no sponsorships.

Schools in ranking

Nebraska schools in dataset

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How We Rank Nebraska Colleges

Rankings use a composite score from verified federal data: graduate earnings (28%), graduation rate (25%), social mobility via Pell Grant share (20%), debt burden (15%), and net cost for low-income students (12%). Where a school has not reported one of these, that component is dropped and the remaining weights are rescaled rather than filled in with an estimate. Only 4-year non-profit schools with sufficient data qualify.

→Earnings: Median annual earnings 10 years after enrollment. Source: College Scorecard.
→Graduation rate: Full-time first-time students completing within 150% of normal time. Source: IPEDS.
→Net price: Average annual cost after all grants and scholarships. Source: IPEDS.
→Social mobility: Share of students receiving Pell Grants — a direct measure of access for low-income students. Source: IPEDS.
→Debt burden: Median federal loan debt at graduation. Source: College Scorecard.

Top 10 Colleges in Nebraska (2026)

Ranked by composite: earnings, graduation rate, social mobility, debt, affordability.

#	School	Accept	Net Price/yr	Grad Rate	Earnings (10yr)
1	University of Nebraska at Omaha Omaha, NE	87%	$13,284	47%	$53,909
2	Clarkson College Omaha, NE	78.2%	$15,928	47%	$64,876
3	University of Nebraska at Kearney Kearney, NE	89.5%	$16,249	58%	$50,105
4	Chadron State College Chadron, NE	50%	$13,852	50%	$47,002
5	Bryan College of Health Sciences Lincoln, NE	67.4%	$25,884	70%	$70,845
6	University of Nebraska-Lincoln Lincoln, NE	87.5%	$18,029	67%	$56,887
7	College of Saint Mary Omaha, NE	44.7%	$14,986	61%	$54,338
8	Nebraska Methodist College of Nursing & Allied Health Omaha, NE	73.4%	$19,474	60%	$65,071
9	Peru State College Peru, NE	50%	$11,855	38%	$47,071
10	Wayne State College Wayne, NE	50%	$15,458	52%	$47,075

19 Nebraska schools in dataset. Top 10 shown. Data: IPEDS + College Scorecard. Updated annually.

All 19 Colleges in the Dataset

The ranking above shows the top 10 by composite score. Every school in the full dataset is listed here so you can explore beyond the top results.

Bellevue University Bryan College of Health Sciences Chadron State College Clarkson College College of Saint Mary Concordia University-Nebraska Creighton University Doane University Hastings College Midland University Nebraska Methodist College of Nursing & Allied Health Nebraska Wesleyan University Peru State College Union Adventist University University of Nebraska at Kearney University of Nebraska at Omaha University of Nebraska-Lincoln Wayne State College York University

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