Verified Federal Data · No Paid Rankings

Best Colleges in Nevada

Top Nevada 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

Nevada schools in dataset

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How We Rank Nevada 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 Nevada (2026)

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

#	School	Accept	Net Price/yr	Grad Rate	Earnings (10yr)
1	University of Nevada-Las Vegas Las Vegas, NV	96.2%	$11,388	51%	$55,037
2	University of Nevada-Reno Reno, NV	73.7%	$16,801	61%	$60,614
3	College of Southern Nevada Las Vegas, NV	50%	$7,293	19%	$38,087
4	Nevada State University Henderson, NV	86.8%	$16,255	34%	$53,166
5	Great Basin College Elko, NV	50%	$7,472	41%	$39,289
6	Western Nevada College Carson City, NV	50%	$15,793	41%	$41,987

6 Nevada schools in dataset. Top 10 shown. Data: IPEDS + College Scorecard. Updated annually.

All 6 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.

College of Southern Nevada Great Basin College Nevada State University University of Nevada-Las Vegas University of Nevada-Reno Western Nevada College

Comparing across states?

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Find Your Perfect Fit in Nevada

These 10 schools are a start. Search all Nevada colleges with filters for major, cost, size, distance, and more.

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