The cost of attending a large university goes beyond tuition and other expenses, like a place to live, can vary wildly from city to city.
According to data assembled by the US Department of Education, the average cost to attend the 10 largest universities in the US is just over $17,000 a year, ranging from $6,200 to just under $29,000.
The large schools in this set come from several regions of the country, but four of the 10 are located in the southeast. What's more, Florida is home to two.
The US Department of Education's most recent "college scorecard," which helps prospective students compare schools based on different factors such as cost, admissions, completion, and post-graduate earnings, was updated in October and shows the average annual cost to attend schools nationwide. The most recent data covers costs from the 2020-2021 school year and enrollment in the 2021-22 year.
The average annual cost is the average net price for students for one academic year of study after applying scholarships and other forms of financial aid. The cost includes the average price of tuition, fees, books, and supplies, as well as living costs at the school.
Cost for public schools represents in-state students, the Department of Education said. Looking just at in-state tuition and required fees, the average among the 10 largest schools, which includes a private school, was about $12,400. For the nine public schools among this group, this average was around $11,250. The out-of-state tuition and required fees for those nine schools averages around $20,000 higher, at around $31,300.
For this analysis, we excluded schools where most undergraduate students attended online, as well as private for-profit schools. We also looked at schools that mainly grant bachelor's degrees or higher.
Below are the 10 largest universities in our analysis and their average annual cost.
Do you attend one of these schools or have experience with the cost of attending a large university? Contact this reporter at cgaines@businessinsider.com.