Guide
What the tribal-college flag covers
This page lists colleges the College Scorecard flags as tribal colleges. The flag is the membership rule. A campus that serves Native students, or that sits near a reservation, stays off when the flag is not set.
Diné College, Navajo Technical University, and Haskell Indian Nations University are on the list because they carry the flag. The table sorts by state so the geographic spread is easy to see. The count of states is in the figures below.
- Schools
- 35
- States
- 13
- Median admit rate
- 94%
- 2 report a rate
- Median earnings
- $26,364
- 10 years after entry
A federal designation
Tribal colleges and universities are a defined set of institutions, most of them chartered by tribal governments. This page uses the Scorecard flag for that set. It does not rebuild the set from a map of tribal lands.
The colleges differ in size and in the credential they award most often. Some are small. Some emphasize associate degrees or certificates. The degree split below is there so the list is not mistaken for one kind of campus.
Native-serving is not the same flag
A public university that enrolls many Native students is not a tribal college unless the flag says so. The HBCU flag and the HSI flag are also different tests. Overlap appears only when two flags are both present.
A cultural center, a Native studies department, or a tribal partnership does not put the parent university on this page. The institution itself has to carry the flag.
How to use the rows
Start with the state if you are looking for a campus in a region. Then read enrollment and predominant degree. A very small undergraduate count is common on this list and is not a broken row.
Price and earnings need care. Sticker price on a public campus is the in-state figure, and many of these colleges are public. Net price after aid can tell a different story. Open the school for that.
Why the list stays short
The designated set is small next to the thousands of colleges in the Scorecard. A short list is the correct result of a specific flag. Padding it with every campus that has a Native student would erase the designation.
Treat blank earnings or a blank admission rate as unreported. Several small colleges do not publish every Scorecard field. A blank is not a zero, and it is not a reason to drop the college from the roll.
Where the schools are
These schools sit in 13 states. The largest groups are Montana (7), North Dakota (5), Minnesota (4), Michigan (3), and New Mexico (3). The rest of the roll is spread across the other states in the table.
Who runs them
By reported control, 30 are public and 5 are private nonprofit. A blank control stays out of that split.
Predominant degree is the credential the campus awards most often. On this list it is an associate degree at 30 schools, a certificate at 4 schools, and a bachelor's degree at 1 school. A campus can still award other credentials.
How large they are
The largest undergraduate enrollments on this list are Dine College in Tsaile, Arizona, with 1,375 undergraduates, Navajo Technical University in Crownpoint, New Mexico, with 1,124 undergraduates, Oglala Lakota College in Kyle, South Dakota, with 1,097 undergraduates, Tohono O'odham Community College in Sells, Arizona, with 998 undergraduates, and Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence, Kansas, with 978 undergraduates. Enrollment is the undergraduate figure. It is not a ranking, and it leaves out graduate students.
Admission
2 of 35 schools report an admission rate. The median of those rates is 94%. Schools with no reported rate stay out of the median. A missing rate is not an open door, and it is not a closed one.
The lowest reported admission rates on this list are Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence, Kansas, at 90% and Institute of American Indian and Alaska Native Culture and Arts Development in Santa Fe, New Mexico, at 97%. A lower rate is harder entry. It is not a score for the school.
The highest reported admission rates on this list are Institute of American Indian and Alaska Native Culture and Arts Development in Santa Fe, New Mexico, at 97% and Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence, Kansas, at 90%.
What they charge
Among 30 public colleges that report an in-state sticker price, the median is $4,045. Among 5 private colleges that report a sticker price, the median is $4,632.
Sticker price is not net price. Grants, waivers, and a service commitment can move the bill by a wide margin. Open a school for the net-price figures.
Earnings and graduation
Among 29 schools that report earnings, the median of those school-level medians is $26,364. The clock starts at entry, not at graduation. The highest reported medians on this list are Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College in Cloquet, Minnesota, at $45,665, Ilisagvik College in Barrow, Alaska, at $39,541, and Tohono O'odham Community College in Sells, Arizona, at $39,229.
Among 35 schools that report a graduation rate, the median rate is 21%. A blank rate is left out. It is not treated as zero.
How these figures work
Admission rate, enrollment, sticker price, earnings, and graduation rate all come from the College Scorecard. Earnings are the median 10 years after a student entered the school. Tuition for a public college is the in-state sticker price. Tuition for a private college is the published sticker price. None of these is net price after aid.
A blank field stays blank. This page does not turn a blank admission rate into an open door, a blank fee into a free application, or a blank earnings figure into zero. The table above is membership under the rule in this guide. Sort order is not a quality ranking.