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National ranking · College Scorecard · Mar-Jul 2026 retrievals

Colleges with the Highest Tuition

Looking for colleges with the highest tuition? Using College Scorecard data retrieved March-July 2026, these operating campuses rank highest on published sticker tuition (out-of-state when reported, otherwise in-state) among colleges with at least 1,000 students. Sticker price is not what most students pay after aid - compare net price before treating tuition as cost.

$72,097
Highest published tuition
100
Colleges ranked
$61,740
#100 cutoff

The list in one line

Every college on this highest-tuition list publishes sticker tuition of $61,740 or more. University of Southern California tops the list at $72,097.

According to the U.S. Department of Education's College Scorecard.

$72,097
#1 - University of Southern
$61,740
#100 cutoff on this list
1,000+
enrollment required per school

Tuition is the published sticker field from College Scorecard; see methodology for vintage details.

Top 15 colleges by published sticker tuition

Higher bars mean higher published tuition

published tuition

What this shows Private research universities and selective liberal-arts colleges dominate sticker tuition - endowment-funded aid often cuts the net price far below these figures.

Source U.S. Department of Education, College Scorecard As of Mar-Jul 2026 retrievals

Full ranking table

Filter by state, ownership sector, or minimum enrollment, then open any school profile for net price and program-level outcomes.

# School Name StatePublished tuitionEnrollment
1 University of Southern California CA $72,097 20,443
2 Columbia University in the City of New York NY $71,845 8,973
3 Kenyon College OH $71,520 1,732
4 Brown University RI $71,412 7,226
5 Vassar College NY $71,030 2,444
6 Franklin and Marshall College PA $70,794 1,799
7 Trinity College CT $70,770 2,146
8 Colorado College CO $70,734 2,014
9 Tufts University MA $70,704 7,061
10 Boston College MA $70,702 10,085
11 Haverford College PA $70,688 1,430
12 University of Chicago IL $70,662 7,569
13 Amherst College MA $70,480 1,911
14 Wesleyan University CT $70,342 3,067
15 Colgate University NY $70,306 3,180
16 Pepperdine University CA $69,918 3,553
17 Barnard College NY $69,888 3,264
18 Colby College ME $69,600 2,407
19 Reed College OR $69,350 1,320
20 Cornell University NY $69,314 15,995
21 Union College NY $69,039 2,046
22 Hamilton College NY $68,960 2,030
23 Carleton College MN $68,892 2,086
24 Duke University NC $68,758 6,442
25 University of Pennsylvania PA $68,686 10,650
26 Tulane University of Louisiana LA $68,678 7,767
27 Williams College MA $68,560 2,076
28 Northwestern University IL $68,322 9,201
29 Dartmouth College NH $68,268 4,541
30 Grinnell College IA $68,106 1,729
31 Macalester College MN $68,104 2,131
32 Boston University MA $68,102 18,248
33 Brandeis University MA $68,080 3,618
34 Washington and Lee University VA $68,045 1,881
35 Georgetown University DC $68,017 7,569
36 Claremont McKenna College CA $67,980 1,388
37 Bowdoin College ME $67,832 1,873
38 Bucknell University PA $67,812 3,876
39 Villanova University PA $67,776 6,938
40 George Washington University DC $67,710 11,182
41 Wake Forest University NC $67,642 5,485
42 Middlebury College VT $67,600 2,738
43 Vanderbilt University TN $67,498 7,208
44 Oberlin College OH $67,366 2,887
45 Skidmore College NY $67,290 2,694
46 Yale University CT $67,250 6,758
47 Connecticut College CT $67,242 1,937
48 Wellesley College MA $67,176 2,300
49 University of Rochester NY $67,080 6,331
50 Southern Methodist University TX $67,040 7,277
51 Mount Holyoke College MA $67,018 2,169
52 Denison University OH $67,000 2,380
53 Sarah Lawrence College NY $66,862 1,530
54 Gettysburg College PA $66,640 2,099
55 Case Western Reserve University OH $66,608 6,437
56 Bates College ME $66,590 1,760
57 Bard College NY $66,436 2,414
58 Occidental College CA $66,274 1,877
59 Carnegie Mellon University PA $66,246 7,304
60 Northeastern University MA $66,162 17,326
61 Scripps College CA $65,950 1,113
62 Bryn Mawr College PA $65,920 1,359
63 Stanford University CA $65,910 7,554
64 St Lawrence University NY $65,900 1,918
65 Washington University in St Louis MO $65,790 7,857
66 Dickinson College PA $65,650 2,273
67 Syracuse University NY $65,528 15,477
68 Swarthmore College PA $65,494 1,613
69 Pomona College CA $65,420 1,666
70 Lafayette College PA $65,398 2,757
71 Johns Hopkins University MD $65,230 5,693
72 University of Richmond VA $65,230 2,980
73 Pitzer College CA $65,192 1,227
74 Smith College MA $65,178 2,544
75 Hobart William Smith Colleges NY $65,117 1,786
76 University of Notre Dame IN $65,025 8,818
77 Chapman University CA $64,984 7,478
78 Lehigh University PA $64,980 5,898
79 Fordham University NY $64,915 10,512
80 Lewis & Clark College OR $64,828 2,120
81 College of the Holy Cross MA $64,500 3,106
82 Davidson College NC $64,410 1,867
83 Emory University GA $64,280 7,298
84 Rice University TX $64,144 4,776
85 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute NY $64,081 5,714
86 Whitman College WA $64,050 1,531
87 Wheaton College (Massachusetts) MA $63,960 1,773
88 Providence College RI $63,550 4,229
89 Stevens Institute of Technology NJ $63,462 4,222
90 University of Puget Sound WA $62,898 1,594
91 Muhlenberg College PA $62,805 1,727
92 New York University NY $62,796 28,663
93 Princeton University NJ $62,688 5,709
94 Rhode Island School of Design RI $62,688 2,084
95 University of Miami FL $62,616 12,913
96 Drexel University PA $62,412 13,233
97 Massachusetts Institute of Technology MA $62,396 4,535
98 Loyola Marymount University CA $62,357 7,094
99 Pratt Institute-Main NY $61,845 3,910
100 Texas Christian University TX $61,740 11,026

About This Ranking

Schools are ranked by published sticker tuition from College Scorecard (out-of-state when available, otherwise in-state). Only operating colleges with enrollment of at least 1,000 are included. For what students actually pay after aid, see our cheapest colleges list. See our methodology for source vintage.

Caveats and limitations

Sticker tuition is not the bill most families pay. Grants, scholarships, and tuition discounts mean net price is the better affordability signal.

For the opposite end of the sticker ladder, see colleges with the lowest tuition.

This ranking is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Use each school's net price calculator for a personalized estimate.

Every figure on PlainCollege is rendered directly from the U.S. Department of Education's College Scorecard data, no number is typed in by an editor. Rankings are computed directly from College Scorecard data, no figure is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error on this page. Review the public data changelog. Data current as of Mar-Jul 2026 retrievals.