Ranked, compared, and filtered by real data: costs, outcomes, and admissions
The Front Range corridor stretching from Fort Collins down through Denver and Pueblo houses an unusually dense cluster of universities for a state of its size, with Colorado State's agricultural and environmental research complementing the University of Colorado's medical and aerospace programs.
Boulder has become a particular draw for students interested in environmental sciences, renewable energy, and outdoor recreation industries, fields that are more than academic interests in a state where those industries shape the economy.
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See how Colorado's colleges compare to the national average on the four measures most students and families weigh when deciding where to go: cost, acceptance rates, graduate earnings, and graduation rates.
The colleges in Colorado that rank highest by UCD Score, and those that deliver above-national graduate earnings at a below-average net price, two of the strongest signals when choosing a school.
Not every student is looking for the same thing. These six panels rank Colorado's colleges by the data that matters most for each path.
Ranked by annual graduates
Ranked by annual graduates
Ranked by annual graduates
Ranked by net price
Ranked by enrollment
Ranked by grad earnings
Which colleges give you the most for what you spend? These eight schools rank highest in Colorado by the ratio of 10-year graduate earnings to annual net price.
| # | College | Net Price / yr | Earnings (10yr) | Ratio | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Pikes Peak State College Colorado Springs | $6,007 | $40,796 | 6.8× | Excellent |
| 2 | Pickens Technical College Aurora | $6,600 | $39,210 | 5.9× | Excellent |
| 3 | Colorado Mountain College Glenwood Springs | $7,813 | $44,127 | 5.7× | Excellent |
| 4 | Colorado State University Pueblo Pueblo | $10,051 | $55,563 | 5.5× | Excellent |
| 5 | University of Colorado Denver/Anschutz Medical Campus Denver | $11,900 | $64,270 | 5.4× | Excellent |
| 6 | Community College of Aurora Aurora | $8,656 | $44,592 | 5.2× | Excellent |
| 7 | Red Rocks Community College Lakewood | $9,044 | $46,288 | 5.1× | Excellent |
| 8 | Colorado State University Global Denver | $16,510 | $76,813 | 4.7× | Excellent |
ROI Ratio = median earnings 10 years after enrollment ÷ annual net price. Higher is better.
The six fields of study with the most annual graduates across all colleges in Colorado, based on IPEDS completion data.
The specific degree programs producing the most graduates across Colorado's colleges. A more granular view than the Popular Majors above, useful when you already know roughly what you want to study and want to see where the volume is.
Careers with a strong employment footprint in Colorado. What graduates from local colleges actually go on to do. State-level employment is shown where the BLS publishes it; national wage + growth shown alongside.
The cities in Colorado with the most colleges, ranked by number of institutions.
Utah crowds 14,137 students into each of its colleges, four times the national norm. These are the states where college options are scarcest per student.
There are 170 colleges that operate a medical school, and they cluster hard. Texas leads with 14, three states hold a fifth of them, and four states have none.
Northeast college graduates earn about $12,700 more a decade out than Southern ones, but they also pay thousands more to get there. The regional split, by the numbers.
Browse our full directory: every college, major, program, and career we track, all built from verified government data.
Scout uses AI and can make mistakes. Verify important numbers on the page.
