here.
A perennial top performer in Money’s rankings, Michigan shines in each of the three areas our team evaluates. Affordability? According to our calculations, the estimated net price of a degree for in-state students is about $102,000 before state and federal aid — less than roughly 650 other schools on our list. Quality? At 93%, the university has one of the highest graduation rates of all the schools we evaluated. Student outcomes? Grad salaries are well above average, with alumni salaries exceeding those of 90% of colleges on our list.
Michigan shines in other ways, too. Students are engaged in various academic and extracurricular projects. In 2023, for instance, a team of undergraduates from U-M won a U.S. Department of Energy competition for their proposal for a pipeline that would divert carbon dioxide away from industrial sources in major cities. The university’s Division I athletics are first-rate, and the Wolverines have notched more than 50 national championships across 12 different sports. During home football games in the fall, hordes of student fans pack into “The Big House” to cheer their team on.
Even U-M’s location is stellar. Ann Arbor is a quintessential college town, offering an impressive number of music venues, restaurants, museums and theaters. The result of all that excellence is a loud, proud community that, among other accolades, can claim an alumni association chapter on the moon. (The crew of Apollo 15, all U-M grads, established a club charter there in 1971.)
Notes: Prices for the 2025-2026 academic year use the most recently available data as reported to IPEDS plus an inflation measure to estimate the prices for the upcoming year. Students who get merit grants are full-time undergraduates who had no financial need and were awarded grants. Graduation rate measures degree completion within six years for both transfer students and first-time students. Early career earnings are the median earnings for both graduates and non-completers, 10 years after they first enrolled.
Sources: U.S. Department of Education, Peterson’s, Money/Witlytic calculations.
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