By Ken Lund, CC BY-SA 2.0
Audio By Carbonatix
Parents of high school upperclassmen already know we’re in college application season, and those without trust funds are probably keeping their eyes on in-state tuition prices along with academic excellence. Colorado is second in the country for educational attainment, after all, according to the experts at US News & World Report. But now that the speciality rankers have released their annual list of top colleges across the country, it looks like Colorado is experiencing a Rocky Mountain low for higher education.
The state was dealt a slight blow in U.S. News‘s high school rankings last month, when only D’Evelyn Junior/Senior High School in Jefferson County made the top 100. The Centennial State fares a bit better in the 2026 Best National Universities rankings with two entries, both of which offer significant tuition discounts for in-state students. However, two universities, the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs and Colorado Technical University (also located in the Springs) are in the dead zone at the end of the list, where individual rankings aren’t even given; both schools tied for last, sitting at numbers 395-434 in the rankings.
There are a handful of Colorado colleges and universities in the decidedly-mid area of the list, as well: the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley comes in at #343 and the University of Colorado Denver is at #232, while Colorado State University in Fort Collins is ranked #151 (the low in-state tuition, $13,774, and student-faculty ratio of 17:1 help push it above the others).
But only two Colorado schools hit the top 100. The crown jewel of the Flatirons, the University of Colorado Boulder, is just slightly more expensive than CSU at $14,606 for in-state students, with a 19:1 student-faculty ratio. That’s good enough to crack (just barely) the Top 100 list, scoring 97th on the U.S. News list. CU-Boulder also ranks #46 in the publication’s ranking of Top Public Schools.
The highest ranking Colorado institute of higher learning on the Best National Universities list is the Colorado School of Mines in Golden, which sits at #80 overall and #40 among public schools. The lauded engineering school’s in-state tuition is markedly higher than the others, at $22,426, but here’s a telling difference between Mines and CU Boulder: CU Boulder graduates can expect to make a median salary of $54,939 six years after graduation, according to U.S. News, while Mines graduates make a median salary of $82,950.
If your retirement plan includes living in your kid’s house, maybe it’s worth the extra in-state tuition to get the little one an engineering degree.
