Ranked, compared, and filtered by real data: costs, outcomes, and admissions
LSU's campus in Baton Rouge carries the full weight of a flagship state university for a place with deep pride in its cultural distinctiveness. The law school still teaches Louisiana's Napoleonic civil code alongside common law, which is a reminder that this is a state that does some things differently by design.
Tulane brings a private research university dimension to New Orleans, and Xavier University of Louisiana holds the distinction of being the only historically Black Catholic university in the country.
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See how Louisiana'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 Louisiana 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 Louisiana'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 Louisiana by the ratio of 10-year graduate earnings to annual net price.
| # | College | Net Price / yr | Earnings (10yr) | Ratio | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Louisiana State University-Shreveport Shreveport | $7,022 | $47,477 | 6.8× | Excellent |
| 2 | Louisiana State University at Alexandria Alexandria | $7,065 | $42,205 | 6.0× | Excellent |
| 3 | Central Louisiana Technical Community College Alexandria | $5,702 | $29,558 | 5.2× | Excellent |
| 4 | Louisiana Tech University Ruston | $11,864 | $52,279 | 4.4× | Excellent |
| 5 | SOWELA Technical Community College Lake Charles | $7,525 | $32,303 | 4.3× | Excellent |
| 6 | Louisiana Delta Community College Monroe | $7,702 | $30,438 | 4.0× | Strong |
| 7 | Louisiana Christian University Pineville | $13,113 | $51,700 | 3.9× | Strong |
| 8 | University of New Orleans New Orleans | $12,384 | $47,872 | 3.9× | Strong |
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 Louisiana, based on IPEDS completion data.
The specific degree programs producing the most graduates across Louisiana'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 Louisiana. 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 Louisiana 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.
