The Most—And Least—Expensive States for College Tuition, Mapped

Four-year universities are great places to learn and earn degrees—if you can afford it.

College tuition has gone up dramatically in recent years, making a degree harder to obtain. For the 2000-01 academic year, for example, in-state tuition and fees cost around $3,500 annually For the 2025-26 school year, the cost was more than $10,000, according to data from the Education Data Initiative. Costs for private schools were even higher.

Where you enroll can play a big role with how much you spend, depending on the state you attend college in. Here are the states where students are spending the most and the states where they're getting the best deal, according to data based on in-state tuition and fees for public universities from the College Board Research, as reported on by Visual Capitalist.

Northeast Schools Dominate Student Wallets

Pricey schools in the Northeast pushed the region higher among all states when it comes to in-state tuition. Vermont leads the country with the highest average in-state annual tuition at $18,094, the only state to be above $18,000.

It was closely followed by second-place New Hampshire at $17,995 and third-place New Jersey at $17,957. Connecticut came in fourth place with $17,355, marking the last of the four states above the $17,000 level. Fifth-place Pennsylvania came in slight below that mark at $16,954.

The Northeast is known for its Ivy League schools like Harvard and Princeton, but public schools in those states also attract interest and tuition dollars. Colleges like the University of Connecticut, Rutgers University, and University of Massachusetts draw in students from across the country.

The cost of living in some states could also be a factor when it comes to the cost of college tuition. New Jersey and Vermont, for example, are in the top 10 states for highest cost of living, according to the World Population Review.

The states with the most expensive in-state annual tuition and fees include:

Florida Leads the Affordable States

Florida is the most affordable state for in-state college tuition, coming in with an average cost of $6,359 annually. That is more than $1,000 cheaper than second-place Wyoming, where the average annual tuition is $7,435.

A mix of western states and southern states dominated the most affordable places to pay for in-state tuition, with North Carolina, Utah, and Georgia rounding out the top five most affordable states.

The top 10 states that are the most affordable for in-state tuition included:

Public Schools Still Offer Budget-Friendly Options

Public colleges and universities get expensive, but they are still more affordable than private schools in the country.

A survey by The Princeton Review found 16 colleges and universities in the United States have tuition and fees that exceed $100,000 annually in costs. These schools include the University of Southern California and New York University, which have names similar to public state schools but are actually private institutions. Like some states with high tuition costs, where these colleges are located can affect how much they cost. Both USC and NYU, for example, are in cities with high costs of living.

Another factor to consider is that some of the most expensive private schools also offer large merit-based scholarships to bring down the cost of attending their programs, which can help bring them more in line with public institutions.