Most and Least Expensive Public Universities by State

When we decided to look at the most and least expensive public colleges by state, we weren’t ready for some of the odd tidbits of information that came out of our analysis. For instance, there are some major schools that you would expect to see on here like Ohio State or Penn State, but they were no where to be seen.

To us, this report leans towards being more interesting to us than actually useful, but some might find this of use when looking to find the cheapest public bachelors degree in a specific state. It is important to note that this report is using the most recent data the Department of Education has for each school (circa 2017), and that these are all public universities, so you won’t be finding any Ivy League schools in this list. We also only looked at in-state tuition costs, so the typically much higher out-of-state costs are not factored in at all.

Most Expensive Schools

	School Name	Tuition
Alabama	University of Montevallo	$12,400
Alaska	University of Alaska Southeast	$6,828
Arizona	University of Arizona	$11,877
Arkansas	University of Arkansas	$9,062
California	University of California-Santa Barbara	$14,451
Colorado	Colorado School of Mines	$18,386
Connecticut	University of Connecticut	$14,880
Delaware	University of Delaware	$13,160
District of Columbia	University of the District of Columbia	$5,756
Florida	Florida International University	$6,556
Georgia	Georgia Institute of Technology-Main Campus	$12,418
Hawaii	University of Hawaii at Manoa	$11,754
Idaho	University of Idaho	$7,488
Illinois	University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign	$15,074
Indiana	Indiana University-Bloomington	$10,533
Iowa	University of Iowa	$8,965
Kansas	University of Kansas	$10,824
Kentucky	University of Kentucky	$11,942
Louisiana	Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College	$11,374
Maine	Maine Maritime Academy	$13,278
Maryland	St. Mary's College of Maryland	$14,496
Massachusetts	Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology	$17,450
Michigan	Michigan Technological University	$15,074
Minnesota	University of Minnesota-Twin Cities	$14,417
Mississippi	Mississippi State University	$8,318
Missouri	University of Missouri-Columbia	$9,787
Montana	Montana Technological University	$7,125
Nebraska	University of Nebraska-Lincoln	$8,978
Nevada	University of Nevada-Las Vegas	$7,665
New Hampshire	University of New Hampshire-Main Campus	$18,067
New Jersey	New Jersey Institute of Technology	$16,898
New Mexico	University of New Mexico-Main Campus	$7,448
New York	University at Buffalo	$9,828
North Carolina	University of North Carolina School of the Arts	$9,338
North Dakota	North Dakota State University-Main Campus	$8,666
Ohio	Miami University-Oxford	$14,958
Oklahoma	University of Oklahoma-Norman Campus	$11,538
Oregon	University of Oregon	$11,931
Pennsylvania	University of Pittsburgh-Pittsburgh Campus	$19,080
Rhode Island	University of Rhode Island	$13,792
South Carolina	Winthrop University	$15,220
South Dakota	South Dakota School of Mines and Technology	$10,400
Tennessee	University of Memphis	$9,317

Least Expensive Schools

	School Name	Tuition
Alabama	University of South Alabama	$7,812
Alaska	University of Alaska Fairbanks	$6,262
Arizona	Dine College	$1,410
Arkansas	University of Arkansas-Fort Smith	$5,577
California	California State University-Fresno	$6,585
Colorado	Colorado Mountain College	$1,840
Connecticut	Charter Oak State College	$7,983
Delaware	Delaware State University	$7,868
District of Columbia	University of the District of Columbia	$5,756
Florida	Broward College	$1,415
Georgia	East Georgia State College	$3,110
Hawaii	University of Hawaii Maui College	$3,158
Idaho	Lewis-Clark State College	$6,334
Illinois	Chicago State University	$10,252
Indiana	Vincennes University	$5,737
Iowa	Iowa State University	$8,636
Kansas	Haskell Indian Nations University	$480
Kentucky	Kentucky State University	$8,184
Louisiana	Southern University at New Orleans	$6,421
Maine	University of Maine at Machias	$7,680
Maryland	University of Maryland-University College	$7,296
Massachusetts	Massachusetts Maritime Academy	$8,398
Michigan	Schoolcraft College	$3,668
Minnesota	Metropolitan State University	$7,859
Mississippi	Mississippi Valley State University	$6,422
Missouri	Harris-Stowe State University	$5,340
Montana	The University of Montana-Western	$5,502
Nebraska	Wayne State College	$6,848
Nevada	Great Basin College	$3,015
New Hampshire	Granite State College	$7,593
New Jersey	Thomas Edison State University	$7,300
New Mexico	Navajo Technical University	$4,070
New York	United States Merchant Marine Academy	$1,020
North Carolina	Elizabeth City State University	$4,986
North Dakota	Bismarck State College	$3,832
Ohio	Miami University-Middletown	$5,173
Oklahoma	Oklahoma State University-Oklahoma City	$3,836
Oregon	Eastern Oregon University	$8,362
Pennsylvania	Kutztown University of Pennsylvania	$9,987
Rhode Island	Rhode Island College	$8,776
South Carolina	University of South Carolina-Aiken	$10,502
South Dakota	Oglala Lakota College	$2,684
Tennessee	Austin Peay State University	$7,913

As a followup, we decided to also look at the Most and Least Expensive Private Universities by State.