Verified IPEDS Data · No Paid Rankings
Best Graduation Rates at Affordable Colleges (2026)
Schools that charge under $30,000 per year in net price and actually graduate their students. Not sticker price: average net price after grant and scholarship aid. Federal IPEDS and College Scorecard data only.
Top 50 Colleges by Graduation Rate (Under $30k Net Price)
Sorted by graduation rate, highest first. Net price under $30,000/yr. 4-year non-profit schools only.
| # | School | Grad Rate |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 100% | |
| 2 | 100% | |
| 3 | 100% | |
| 4 | 100% | |
| 5 | 100% | |
| 6 | 100% | |
| 7 | 100% | |
| 8 | 100% | |
| 9 | 100% | |
| 10 | 100% | |
| 11 | 98% | |
| 12 | 98% | |
| 13 | 97% | |
| 14 | 97% | |
| 15 | 96% | |
| 16 | 96% | |
| 17 | 96% | |
| 18 | 96% | |
| 19 | 96% | |
| 20 | 96% | |
| 21 | 96% | |
| 22 | 96% | |
| 23 | 95% | |
| 24 | 95% | |
| 25 | 95% | |
| 26 | 95% | |
| 27 | 95% | |
| 28 | 94% | |
| 29 | 94% | |
| 30 | 94% | |
| 31 | 94% | |
| 32 | 94% | |
| 33 | 94% | |
| 34 | 94% | |
| 35 | 94% | |
| 36 | 93% | |
| 37 | 93% | |
| 38 | 93% | |
| 39 | 93% | |
| 40 | 93% | |
| 41 | 93% | |
| 42 | 93% | |
| 43 | 92% | |
| 44 | 92% | |
| 45 | 92% | |
| 46 | 92% | |
| 47 | 91% | |
| 48 | 91% | |
| 49 | 91% | |
| 50 | 91% |
1,241 schools qualified (4-year, non-profit, net price under $30,000/yr, graduation rate of 40% or higher). Data: IPEDS. Updated annually.
Public and Private Schools in the Top 50
By type, the top 50 splits 45 private to 5 public. The first public school on the list is University of Virginia-Main Campus, at #21. Across all 1,241 qualifying schools, the split is 736 private to 505 public.
Why This Ranking Exists
Students who leave without a degree can still owe student loans. Traditional rankings treat graduation rate as one signal among many. We think it deserves its own ranking, especially filtered to schools you can actually afford.
- →Graduation rate: The share of full-time, first-time degree-seeking undergraduates who complete their degree within 150% of normal time (6 years for a 4-year program). Source: IPEDS.
- →Net price cap of $30,000/yr: Net price here is the annual average net price IPEDS reports for full-time, first-time undergraduates who received grant or scholarship aid, not sticker price. It is an average, not what any one student pays. A school is included only if that average is $30,000 a year or less. Source: IPEDS.
- →Minimum graduation rate of 40%: Schools with no reported graduation rate or net price, or a graduation rate under 40%, are left out of the ranking and of the full list below.
- →Why exclude for-profits: For-profit institutions are excluded. Their graduation metrics are not consistently comparable and their student outcomes differ structurally.
- →Tiebreaker: When two schools share an identical graduation rate, we sort by median earnings 10 years after entry from the College Scorecard. Schools with no earnings figure sort after those that have one.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why cap at $30k net price?
Net price is the annual average cost after grant and scholarship aid, not sticker price. We cap it at $30,000 a year so the list only includes schools that are affordable on average. The cap uses the average net price IPEDS reports for each school, which covers students who received aid, so what one family pays can be higher or lower. Selective schools are not screened out: acceptance rate is shown in the table, and the ranking is by graduation rate.
Does this include transfer students?
No. The IPEDS graduation rate measures full-time, first-time degree-seeking students who enrolled in fall of a given year and completed within 150% of normal time (6 years for a 4-year program). Transfer students are tracked separately in a different federal cohort and are not included in this figure. If you are transferring, ask each school directly for their transfer graduation rate.
What is a good graduation rate?
We read a rate above 75% as strong and above 85% as excellent. Those cut-offs are our own reading of the figures, not a federal standard, and rates track who a school admits as much as how well it serves them, so compare schools with similar admissions. Below 50% is a serious red flag, it means more than half of entering students do not finish within six years, and some of them leave with student debt and no degree. The cost of not finishing is often underestimated.
Why do some famous schools not appear?
Three reasons. First, only schools with an average net price of $30,000 a year or less are included, so a school with a high graduation rate and a higher net price is left out. Second, schools with no reported graduation rate in IPEDS, or a reported rate under 40%, are left out, along with for-profit schools and schools that are not 4-year institutions. Third, the table shows only the 50 highest graduation rates, and every other qualifying school is in the full list at the bottom of the page. The table figures come from IPEDS, and College Scorecard earnings are used only to break ties.
All 1241 Colleges in the Dataset
The ranking above shows the top 50. Every qualifying school is listed here.
A
50B
63C
126D
27E
37F
32G
34H
41I
24J
11K
19L
39M
103N
44O
25P
34R
34S
118T
64U
195V
16W
75Y
27Graduation Rate Is One Signal
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