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Best Education Colleges in West Virginia

By David Krug, Co-Founder, CollegeRanker · Updated 2026-05-31 · 14 schools · Agent Insights
14
Schools Analyzed
$45,369
Avg. Earnings (10yr)
40%
Avg. Graduation Rate
$12,752
Avg. Net Price

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This ranking scores 14 institutions on graduation rates, graduate earnings, debt burdens, and social mobility data from Opportunity Insights. Every data point comes from federal sources. No surveys, no opinions.

Social mobility carries the heaviest weight in our algorithm. We use Raj Chetty's Mobility Report Card — built on 30 million anonymized tax records — to measure whether a college changes a family's economic trajectory across generations. Schools that take low-income students and launch them into higher earnings rank higher than schools that admit wealthy students and take credit for their success.

The transparency penalty matters here. Schools that don't report their data get scored lower than schools that do. If an institution won't show you its numbers, we think you should know that before you write them a tuition check.

Quick Numbers

Schools ranked 14
Avg. earnings at 10yr $45,369
Avg. graduation rate 40%
Avg. net price $12,752
Avg. median debt $22,556

How We Ranked

Education programs in West Virginia ranked by outcomes and program concentration

Read our full methodology →

Earnings vs. Cost

Each dot is a ranked school. Up = higher earnings. Right = higher cost. Top-left is the best value.

$15K$68K$120K$0$50KNET PRICEConcord UniversityWest LibertyMarshall UniversityShepherd UniversityWest Virginia

Graduation Rates

Longer bars = higher graduation rate.

Concord University41%West Liberty University60%Marshall University50%Shepherd University50%West Virginia State Univ…36%West Virginia Wesleyan C…53%Bethany College47%Davis & Elkins College38%Glenville State Universi…35%Fairmont State University46%Wheeling University27%Potomac State College of…28%Bluefield State Universi…36%West Virginia University…20%

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Full Rankings

#1

Concord University

Athens, WV · 1,504 students · Public

93% accepted 41% graduate $42,703 earnings
Concord's full profile
#2

West Liberty University

West Liberty, WV · 1,511 students · Public

97% accepted 60% graduate $43,296 earnings
West's full profile
#3

Marshall University

Huntington, WV · 7,266 students · Public

96% accepted 50% graduate $46,354 earnings
Marshall's full profile
#4

Shepherd University

Shepherdstown, WV · 2,344 students · Public

97% accepted 50% graduate $49,358 earnings
Shepherd's full profile
#5

West Virginia State University

Institute, WV · 1,321 students · Public

96% accepted 36% graduate $40,492 earnings
West's full profile
#6

West Virginia Wesleyan College

Buckhannon, WV · 954 students · Private nonprofit

93% accepted 53% graduate $51,593 earnings
West's full profile
#7

Bethany College

Bethany, WV · 614 students · Private nonprofit

59% accepted 47% graduate $44,512 earnings
Bethany's full profile
#8

Davis & Elkins College

Elkins, WV · 661 students · Private nonprofit

94% accepted 38% graduate $43,411 earnings
Davis's full profile
#9

Glenville State University

Glenville, WV · 1,096 students · Public

35% graduate $39,315 earnings
Glenville's full profile
#10

Fairmont State University

Fairmont, WV · 2,590 students · Public

99% accepted 46% graduate $46,857 earnings
Fairmont's full profile
#11

Wheeling University

Wheeling, WV · 589 students · Private nonprofit

63% accepted 27% graduate $57,949 earnings
Wheeling's full profile
#12

Potomac State College of West Virginia University

Keyser, WV · 853 students · Public

28% graduate $55,939 earnings
Potomac's full profile
#13

Bluefield State University

Bluefield, WV · 1,042 students · Public

97% accepted 36% graduate $38,217 earnings
Bluefield's full profile
#14

West Virginia University at Parkersburg

Parkersburg, WV · 1,868 students · Public

20% graduate $35,171 earnings
West's full profile

Sources & Citations

[1]

U.S. Department of Education. College Scorecard Data. Federal Student Aid, National Center for Education Statistics.

[2]

National Center for Education Statistics. Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS).

DK

David Krug

Co-Founder, CollegeRanker

David Krug is the co-founder of CollegeRanker and a data systems architect focused on making institutional research accessible to families. He builds the data pipelines and ranking algorithms that power CollegeRanker, drawing from federal datasets and Raj Chetty's Opportunity Insights research to measure what traditional rankings ignore: whether a college actually changes a family's economic trajectory.