Methodology

To determine the most expensive states to get a college education, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed Global Student Costs, a report compiled by DealA, a Singapore-based free coupon website for online shoppers. 

DealA sourced the cost of living index for each state as of 2021 from the Missouri Economic Research and Information Center. The U.S.’s cost of living is 100, and lower index values mean lower cost of living and vice versa. The average cost of public and private college tuition for the academic year 2021-2022 in each state was sourced from College Tuition Compare. The average annual cost of a college dormitory room for full-time students at degree-granting postsecondary institutions is for the academic year 2018-19 and was sourced from the National Center for Education Statistics.

DealA gave each state a normalized score out of 10 points for each of the criteria, then calculated the average score out of 10 for each one to arrive at an overall student cost score, with those with higher scores being less expensive.