Ranked, compared, and filtered by real data: costs, outcomes, and admissions
West Virginia University in Morgantown serves a state going through a genuine and difficult economic transition, and its programs in data science, health sciences, and energy engineering reflect a deliberate effort to build new industries in a region where coal's decline has left a real gap.
Marshall University in Huntington has its own strong health sciences programs and serves a part of the state that is sometimes overlooked in conversations about West Virginia's future. Both campuses understand they are not just educational institutions but economic anchors for their communities.
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See how West Virginia'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 West Virginia 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 West Virginia'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 West Virginia by the ratio of 10-year graduate earnings to annual net price.
| # | College | Net Price / yr | Earnings (10yr) | Ratio | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Fred W Eberle Technical Center Buckhannon | $2,129 | $43,364 | 20.4× | Excellent |
| 2 | West Virginia University at Parkersburg Parkersburg | $1,807 | $35,171 | 19.5× | Excellent |
| 3 | Mercer County Technical Education Center Princeton | $2,225 | $33,511 | 15.1× | Excellent |
| 4 | Blue Ridge Community and Technical College Martinsburg | $4,641 | $39,293 | 8.5× | Excellent |
| 5 | New River Community and Technical College Beaver | $3,599 | $29,073 | 8.1× | Excellent |
| 6 | BridgeValley Community & Technical College South Charleston | $4,565 | $36,432 | 8.0× | Excellent |
| 7 | Marshall University Huntington | $7,502 | $46,354 | 6.2× | Excellent |
| 8 | Potomac State College of West Virginia University Keyser | $9,197 | $55,939 | 6.1× | 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 West Virginia, based on IPEDS completion data.
The specific degree programs producing the most graduates across West Virginia'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.
The cities in West Virginia 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.
