Research · College costs · October 2026
Median student debt at graduation runs from $10,250 to $26,000
As of October 2026: Median federal student debt at graduation runs from $10,250 at Johns Hopkins University to $26,000 at Syracuse University. Most of these colleges land between $13,000 and $21,500.
The table holds the median federal loan debt of students who finished a degree at each college. It leaves out private loans, parent loans, and students who left without a degree.
Analysis: Test Prep Gurus (High School Reach, highschoolreach.com), October 2026. Figures and the table may be quoted with attribution to Test Prep Gurus.
The findings, in plain English
The lowest debt sits at two very different kinds of college. Johns Hopkins is lowest at $10,250, with Princeton at $10,320 and Brown at $11,428. Right beside them is CUNY City College at $11,990, and Cal State LA at $13,000. Rich private colleges and low-price publics reach the same place by different routes.
Debt does not follow reputation. Columbia reports $21,500 and Carnegie Mellon $21,750. Texas Tech and Clemson also report $21,500. Penn State is the highest public figure at $25,000, and Syracuse is the highest on the list at $26,000. Cornell, by contrast, reports $14,000.
A median is the middle, not a ceiling. Half of the borrowers at a college owe more than the figure shown. The measure also counts federal loans only. A family that borrows from a bank, or a parent who signs a loan, does not show up here at all.
Median federal debt at graduation, college by college
Sorted from the lowest median to the highest.
Median federal loan debt carried at graduation by borrowers who completed a degree at that college, from the latest federal file as of October 2026. Private loans, parent loans, and students who left without a degree are all outside the measure. Half of borrowers owe more than the figure shown.
What this number is
The figure is the median federal loan debt carried by students who completed a degree at that college, measured at graduation. Students who left without a degree are not in it, and they are often the ones carrying a loan with no degree to show for it.
Private loans and parent loans are also outside the measure. A low median at a high-price college does not mean families spent little. It means the federal loans those graduates took were small.
Debt and price are two different questions
A low debt figure can come from a low price, from a large award, or from a family paying out of savings. The debt number cannot tell you which one happened. For the price itself, read our table of what families pay at these same colleges.
Merit money is the part of a college bill a student can still move while in high school. Many colleges publish a grid: this test score and this grade point average bring this award, renewed each year. That money comes off the bill before anything is borrowed.
What a family should do with this
Write the median next to the pay a graduate of that college tends to see ten years out, which is in our payoff table. A loan figure only means something when the income is in the same view.
Then treat the median as the middle of a range rather than a cap, and chase the merit grid at every college on the list. A smaller loan at graduation starts with a smaller bill in the first place.
Questions parents ask
Which college leaves graduates with the least debt?
Median federal student debt at graduation runs from $10,250 at Johns Hopkins University to $26,000 at Syracuse University.
Does this include parent loans or private loans?
Private loans and parent loans are also outside the measure.
Does a low median mean most families paid little?
A low median at a high-price college does not mean families spent little.
Method & sources: The figures are the College Scorecard's median federal loan debt of borrowers who completed a degree, as reported for each college in the latest federal file. The population is the colleges that receive the most applications, ranked from the lowest median to the highest. Private loans, parent loans, and students who left without finishing are excluded. The figure is a median, so half of a college's borrowers owe more.
This brief as data: /research/student-debt-100-colleges.json. Free for editorial use with attribution to Test Prep Gurus (High School Reach).
Related: What families actually pay at these colleges · The payoff of the most-applied-to colleges · Merit scholarships by score and grade point average