Best College Value in Louisiana: Top ROI Schools (2026)

Louisiana gives families a genuinely wide set of choices, and a genuinely wide set of outcomes. The best-scoring school in the state returns solidly. The worst-scoring one graduates 13% of its students. Knowing which is which is worth a lot of money.

The Top Value Schools in Louisiana

We score 23 four-year institutions in Louisiana on net price, median earnings ten years out, completion rate, and debt.

1. Louisiana State University - ROI 76. Net price $19,151, median earnings $61,251, 69% completion, 73% admit rate. The flagship in Baton Rouge and the state's strongest all-around outcome: the highest completion rate among Louisiana's large publics and the highest earnings among them too. For most Louisiana students this is the default, and a defensible one.

1. Louisiana Tech University - ROI 64. Net price $11,864, median earnings $52,279, 64% completion. The value play of the state. It costs about $7,287 a year less than LSU and completes its students at nearly the same rate. Its engineering programs in Ruston are why the earnings hold up.

1. Tulane University - ROI 64. Net price $39,949, median earnings $63,268, 86% completion, 14% admit rate. The same score as Louisiana Tech, arrived at from the opposite direction: the best completion rate and the best earnings in the state, at more than triple the cost.

1. Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady University - ROI 61. Net price $18,552, median earnings $59,419, 45% completion, 99% admit rate. A Baton Rouge health-sciences school with earnings second only to Tulane's, driven almost entirely by nursing. The completion rate is the catch, and the near-universal admit rate means the school is not doing the filtering for you.

1. Louisiana Christian University - ROI 56. Net price $13,113, median earnings $51,700, 44% completion.

1. Louisiana State University-Shreveport - ROI 52. Net price $7,022, the cheapest in the state, median earnings $47,477, 38% completion.

1. Xavier University of Louisiana - ROI 51. Net price $17,127, median earnings $52,184, 49% completion, 69% admit rate. The strongest ROI among Louisiana's historically Black colleges and universities in our data, with a well-known pipeline into the health professions.

1. University of New Orleans - ROI 47. Net price $12,384, median earnings $47,872, 38% completion.

1. University of Louisiana at Lafayette - ROI 47. Net price $13,530, median earnings $47,089, 53% completion. The state's second-largest public.

1. University of Louisiana at Monroe - ROI 47. Net price $13,466, median earnings $46,769, 54% completion.

LSU vs Louisiana Tech: The Real Decision

For a large share of Louisiana students this is the actual choice, and the arithmetic favors Louisiana Tech more than its reputation suggests.

LSU costs $19,151 a year net and its graduates earn $61,251. Louisiana Tech costs $11,864 and its graduates earn $52,279. Over four years, LSU costs about $29,148 more. The earnings gap is about $8,972 a year.

So LSU repays its premium in roughly three to four years of working life, which means for most students who finish, LSU is worth it. That is a real answer and we will not dodge it.

But two things sharpen the case for Louisiana Tech. First, if your student is going into engineering, Tech's programs feed the same regional employers, and the earnings gap narrows considerably inside that major. Second, if there is any real chance of not finishing, the cheaper school is dramatically the safer bet: $11,864 a year of debt with no degree is survivable, and $19,151 a year of it is much less so.

Louisiana Tech is the pick for engineering-bound students and cost-sensitive families. LSU is the pick for nearly everyone else who can afford it.

Tulane and the Price of a National Network

Tulane is an excellent university with the best completion rate in Louisiana (86%) and the highest graduate earnings ($63,268). It is also, at $39,949 a year net, roughly double the cost of any other school in the state.

Run it as a Louisiana resident. Tulane costs about $83,192 more than LSU over four years, and its graduates earn about $2,017 a year more. On those numbers alone the premium takes decades to repay, which is another way of saying it does not repay.

That does not make Tulane a bad school. It makes it a school you should choose for reasons other than in-state financial return: a genuinely national alumni network, access to selective graduate programs, and out-of-state or international opportunity that LSU's network does not reach as easily. And if Tulane's aid package brings your family's actual cost well below the $39,949 average, the math changes entirely. Run your own number rather than ours.

The Debt Problem Families Should See

Louisiana has a cluster of schools where graduates leave with debt approaching or exceeding a year of their earnings, and it would be dishonest to write a value guide for this state without naming it plainly.

Grambling State University scores 12: median debt $36,500 against median earnings of $41,109, with a 36% completion rate. Southern University and A&M College scores 16: debt $29,251, earnings $43,371, 27% completion. Dillard University scores 15: debt $31,000, earnings $39,196. Southern University at New Orleans scores 8, the lowest in the state: earnings $34,042, debt $31,000, and a 13% completion rate.

Context is essential here and we want to state it clearly. These are historically Black institutions, and the funding gap they operate under is documented public record: in 2023 the U.S. Departments of Education and Agriculture notified Louisiana that Southern University had been underfunded by more than $1.1 billion relative to its land-grant peers over roughly three decades. Weak completion rates and heavy student debt at chronically underfunded schools are a predictable consequence of that underfunding, not a verdict on the students who attend or on what these institutions mean to the state. Xavier, at ROI 51, shows what a Louisiana HBCU produces when its finances are stable.

But a family about to commit four years and tens of thousands of dollars deserves the number, whatever produced it. If your student is choosing one of these schools for its community, its mission, or its network, that is a legitimate decision. We would only urge you to borrow as little as you possibly can, and to map the completion path with the school before you enroll.

Cost vs Earnings by Major

Louisiana's economy runs on energy (oil, gas, and petrochemicals along the river corridor), healthcare, shipping and ports, and tourism in New Orleans.

• Engineering (petroleum, chemical, mechanical) - LSU and Louisiana Tech. This is where the state's earnings ceiling is, and both feed it directly.
• Nursing and allied health - Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady and Xavier. Reliable earnings, strong statewide demand.
• Business - LSU and Tulane. Tulane's Freeman school has the stronger out-of-state reach.
• Hospitality and culinary - The New Orleans schools have unmatched access to the industry, and the earnings ceiling is genuinely limited. Go in knowing that.
• Education and social work - The regional publics (Nicholls, McNeese, Southeastern, Northwestern State) are the low-cost path, with earnings in the $45,000 to $47,000 range.

The Bottom Line

For most Louisiana students who will finish: LSU. Best completion, best earnings among the publics, and a price the earnings justify.

If your student is engineering-bound or cost-sensitive: Louisiana Tech at $11,864 a year is the sharpest value in the state, and the completion rate holds up.

If money is genuinely tight and your student will finish: LSU-Shreveport at $7,022 or LSU-Alexandria at $7,065 are the cheapest four-year degrees available, and their sub-40% completion rates are exactly why that "will finish" condition matters.

Before committing to Tulane at in-state, run your actual aid package against LSU's. If Tulane's number lands close, take it. At the average, it does not repay for a Louisiana resident.

And wherever your student lands, borrow less than you think you can afford to. Louisiana's earnings figures are modest by national standards, and debt scales badly against them.

For the neighboring Gulf comparison, see our best college value in Texas breakdown.

Data sources: College Scorecard, IPEDS, as of 2024. Net price is the average across aided students; your number will differ. Median earnings are measured ten years after entry.