Study in the Americas: 21 countries compared
From the United States and Canada to Brazil, Argentina and the Andes — what each country's government publishes about its universities, and what you can do with it here.
21
countries in the Americas with a section on this site
3
have a matcher: enter your own grades or scores and see where you stand
18
are directories or finders, where no entry data can be reused
Side by side
In alphabetical order, not ranked. Each country counts its institutions in its own way — one lists universities, another every campus or college — so the numbers describe each section, not the size of the country's system.
| Country | What you can do here | Listed | Usual first degree |
|---|---|---|---|
| Argentina | Directory | 125national, provincial & private universities and university institutes | 5 years (licenciatura and professional degrees) |
| Bolivia | Directory — official list | 60public, private, indigenous & special-regime universities | 5 years (licenciatura) |
| Brazil | Matcher on Sisu cut-offs | 2,546universities, university centres, faculties & federal institutes | 4–5 years (bacharelado), 2–3 for a technology degree |
| Canada | Directory | 235universities & colleges | 4 years (Bachelor), 2–3 (college diploma) |
| Chile | Directory — official register | 55universities | 5 years (licenciatura and professional title) |
| Colombia | Directory — 2022 register | 300universities, university institutions & technological and technical institutions (as at 2022) | 5 years (university degree), 3 for a technologist programme |
| Costa Rica | Matcher on admission score | 13campuses of the University of Costa Rica | 4 years (bachillerato); longer with a licenciatura |
| Dominican Republic | Directory + 2010–2024 enrolment | 57universities and institutes | About 4 years (licenciatura); técnico superior is shorter |
| Ecuador | Directory + accreditation | 64universities & polytechnic schools | 4–5 years (licenciatura and professional degrees) |
| El Salvador | Directory + enrolment by programme | 43universities and institutes | Licenciatura (first degree) is the most common; programme lengths are not in the ministry's data |
| Guatemala | Directory + programme register | 17universities | Licenciatura (first degree): most are recorded at 4–5 years |
| Haiti | Directory — community-maintained, not official | 10universities | 4 years (bachelor's) |
| Honduras | Directory + students per institution | 22universities and other higher-education institutions | 4–5 years (licenciatura) |
| Mexico | Directory | 2,886universities & institutes | 4–5 years (licenciatura) |
| Nicaragua | Directory — community-maintained, not official | 17universities | 4 years (bachelor's) |
| Panama | Directory + accreditation | 39universities | Varies by degree (licenciatura is the first degree) |
| Paraguay | Directory + accreditation | 57universities | 4–6 years (licenciatura and professional degrees) |
| Peru | Directory + licensing status | 96licensed universities | 5 years (carrera profesional) |
| United States | Full matcher | 1,596four-year colleges | 4 years |
| Uruguay | Directory + programmes | 7universities | 4–5 years (licenciatura and professional degrees) |
| Venezuela | Directory — official list | 160universities, university institutes & colleges | 5 years (licenciatura and professional degrees) |
Where you can match yourself
In these countries the published data includes something to compare your own number with — a cut-off, an average entry grade or how contested a place is. Each quiz says exactly which, and for which year.
North America
Canada
235 universities & colleges
- How you get in
- provincial secondary-school average; each institution sets its own bar
- Taught in
- English, and French in Quebec
- What it costs
- C$2,954–C$6,488/yrBritish Columbia only: the provincial ministry's 2025/26 tuition for a typical full-time undergraduate arts student, for Canadian students, at the 22 of its 25 public institutions that report an arts figure (international students: C$12,031–C$49,549). Other provinces publish no tuition per institution
- What graduates earn
- C$66,000/yrBritish Columbia only: median annual salary reported by bachelor's graduates of B.C.'s public institutions in BC Stats' surveys, 2023 to 2025 pooled, one to two years after their programme. Ontario publishes employment rates per institution but not pay; other provinces publish neither
- For students from abroad
- 24% internationalacross the institutions Statistics Canada publishes the split for — the only country here where the international share is known per institution, which matters now that study-permit caps are in force
- What we can't tell you
- Statistics Canada publishes enrolment and graduates per institution, but tuition and graduate earnings only by province and field of study. British Columbia publishes both per institution and Ontario publishes graduate employment rates; for Quebec, Alberta and the other provinces we can show you how international an institution is, and not what it costs or what its graduates earn.
Mexico
2,886 universities & institutes
- How you get in
- each institution sets its own entrance exam; no national cut-off register
- Taught in
- Spanish
- What it costs
- Not published as open data
- What graduates earn
- Not published as open data
- For students from abroad
- 5.5M studentsacross 2,886 institutions and 5,523 campuses — one of the largest systems in the Americas, and the census counts every one
- What we can't tell you
- Mexico's census gives enrolment, graduates and staff per institution, but the country publishes no per-institution tuition, entry cut-offs or graduate earnings at all — earnings exist only by field of study nationally.
United States
1,596 four-year colleges
- How you get in
- GPA + SAT/ACT, essays, recommendations
- Taught in
- English
- What it costs
- $19,859/yrmedian net price after grant aid, across colleges — the only country here that publishes what families actually pay
- What graduates earn
- $54,869/yrmedian earnings 10 years after entering, across colleges
- For students from abroad
- 346,984 studentsinternational undergraduates across these colleges (median 2% of a campus); out-of-state tuition, the closest proxy for what they pay, runs about $21,114/yr
- What we can't tell you
- Sticker price varies enormously; net price depends heavily on family income.
Central America
Costa Rica
13 campuses of the University of Costa Rica
- How you get in
- The University of Costa Rica ranks applicants on one admission score (200–800), combining its Prueba de Aptitud Académica with high-school grades, and fills each programme at each campus from the top; the score of the last applicant admitted is published
- Taught in
- Spanish
- What it costs
- Not published as open data
- What graduates earn
- Not published as open data
- For students from abroad
- Not published as open data
- What we can't tell you
- Only the University of Costa Rica publishes its admission data as open data — 165 programme × campus cut-offs for 2026 — so Costa Rica's other public universities (TEC, UNA, UNED, UTN) and its private universities are not covered, and UCR's files carry no fees or graduate outcomes.
El Salvador
43 universities and institutes
- How you get in
- Each institution admits directly; the public Universidad de El Salvador runs a yearly admission process with an online aptitude test and a general knowledge test
- Taught in
- Spanish
- What it costs
- Not published as open data
- What graduates earn
- Not published as open data
- For students from abroad
- Not published as open data
- What we can't tell you
- No fees, admission requirements or graduate outcomes are published per institution as data, and the latest enrolment by institution is for the first term of 2023.
Guatemala
17 universities
- How you get in
- Each university admits directly; the state university, USAC, requires a vocational-orientation test, basic-knowledge tests and its faculties' own entry tests
- Taught in
- Spanish
- What it costs
- Not published as open data
- What graduates earn
- Not published as open data
- For students from abroad
- Not published as open data
- What we can't tell you
- No enrolment, fees, admission requirements or graduate outcomes are published per university as open data, and the national register lists programmes without saying whether each is still taught.
Honduras
22 universities and other higher-education institutions
- How you get in
- Each university admits directly; UNAH and the other public universities set their own admission tests
- Taught in
- Spanish
- What it costs
- Not published as open data
- What graduates earn
- Not published as open data
- For students from abroad
- Not published as open data
- What we can't tell you
- The higher-education directorate publishes students per institution by sex, but no programme lists, fees, admission requirements or outcomes, and states no reuse terms, so only its figures are used.
Nicaragua
17 universities
- How you get in
- Each university admits on the bachillerato with its own test; foreign students apply to the university directly
- Taught in
- Spanish
- What it costs
- Not published as open data
- What graduates earn
- Not published as open data
- For students from abroad
- Not published as open data
- What we can't tell you
- Wikidata only; no official list. No list from the Consejo Nacional de Universidades (CNU) could be read or republished, so this is a community-maintained list of universities by department or region with no figures, fees or programmes.
Panama
39 universities
- How you get in
- Each university admits directly; the University of Panama, the largest, runs a yearly admission process with its own tests
- Taught in
- Spanish
- What it costs
- Not published as open data
- What graduates earn
- Not published as open data
- For students from abroad
- Not published as open data
- What we can't tell you
- Private universities' enrolment is confidential by law and only published as one national total, and no fees, admission requirements or graduate outcomes are published per university.
Caribbean
Dominican Republic
57 universities and institutes
- How you get in
- Each institution sets its own admission requirements on the secondary-school diploma (bachiller); none are published as data
- Taught in
- Spanish
- What it costs
- Not published as open data
- What graduates earn
- Not published as open data
- For students from abroad
- 1.0% born abroad5,343 of 520,524 students in 2024 were born outside the Dominican Republic — country of birth, not nationality (our sum over MESCyT's per-institution table)
- What we can't tell you
- MESCyT's yearbook gives counts per institution but no fees, admission requirements, programme lists or graduate outcomes, and its site reserves all rights, so only the figures are used.
Haiti
10 universities
- How you get in
- Each university sets its own entrance examination (concours d'admission)
- Taught in
- French and Haitian Creole
- What it costs
- Not published as open data
- What graduates earn
- Not published as open data
- For students from abroad
- Not published as open data
- What we can't tell you
- Wikidata only; no official list. No list from the education ministry, MENFP could be read or republished, so this is a community-maintained list of universities by department with no figures, fees or programmes.
South America
Argentina
125 national, provincial & private universities and university institutes
- How you get in
- A secondary-school certificate; national universities mostly admit without an entrance exam, some after a preparatory course
- Taught in
- Spanish
- What it costs
- Not published as open data
- What graduates earn
- Not published as open data
- For students from abroad
- 4.3% from abroad110,906 of 2,608,231 undergraduates are foreign students, reported per institution in the 2024 yearbook
- What we can't tell you
- Undergraduate study at national universities is tuition-free, private fees are not published as data, and there are no entry scores because there is no national entrance exam.
Bolivia
60 public, private, indigenous & special-regime universities
- How you get in
- Each university's own admission exam or preparatory course
- Taught in
- Spanish
- What it costs
- Not published as open data
- What graduates earn
- Not published as open data
- For students from abroad
- Not published as open data
- What we can't tell you
- The ministry last published its list of private universities in 2016, and no enrolment, fees or admission figures are available for reuse.
Brazil
2,546 universities, university centres, faculties & federal institutes
- How you get in
- The national ENEM exam, used through SISU for public universities; many institutions also run their own vestibular
- Taught in
- Portuguese
- What it costs
- Not published as open data
- What graduates earn
- Not published as open data
- For students from abroad
- 23,029 enrolments of foreign nationalsof 10,227,266 undergraduate enrolments in the 2024 census — counted per course, so not a headcount
- What we can't tell you
- Federal and state institutions are tuition-free, private fees are not in the census, and ENEM cut-off scores are a separate system that isn't part of this data.
Chile
55 universities
- How you get in
- The national PAES admission test, with centralised application to most universities
- Taught in
- Spanish
- What it costs
- Not published as open data
- What graduates earn
- Not published as open data
- For students from abroad
- Not published as open data
- What we can't tell you
- Chile publishes fees, vacancies, enrolment and graduates for every programme, but labels them for non-commercial use only — so this is the ministry's register of recognised institutions and nothing more.
Colombia
300 universities, university institutions & technological and technical institutions (as at 2022)
- How you get in
- The Saber 11 state exam, with each institution setting its own admission process
- Taught in
- Spanish
- What it costs
- Not published as open data
- What graduates earn
- Not published as open data
- For students from abroad
- Not published as open data
- What we can't tell you
- The openly licensed register dates from July 2022, and the ministry's current enrolment figures and tuition values are under terms that forbid commercial reuse.
Ecuador
64 universities & polytechnic schools
- How you get in
- A national admission process for public universities; private universities set their own
- Taught in
- Spanish
- What it costs
- Not published as open data
- What graduates earn
- Not published as open data
- For students from abroad
- Not published as open data
- What we can't tell you
- The ministry's enrolment and programme data is licensed for non-commercial use only, so this is the council's list of authorised universities with their accreditation status and nothing more.
Paraguay
57 universities
- How you get in
- Each university sets its own admission; public universities usually run an entrance course or exam
- Taught in
- Spanish (Guaraní is co-official)
- What it costs
- Not published as open data
- What graduates earn
- Not published as open data
- For students from abroad
- Not published as open data
- What we can't tell you
- Paraguay accredits individual programmes rather than universities, and publishes no enrolment, fees or admission figures per university.
Peru
96 licensed universities
- How you get in
- Each university runs its own admission exam; there is no national entrance test
- Taught in
- Spanish
- What it costs
- Not published as open data
- What graduates earn
- Not published as open data
- For students from abroad
- Not published as open data
- What we can't tell you
- The regulator's open data covers licensing and programmes; applicants, admitted and enrolled per university come from the statistics office (2024). No fees, and entry scores for part of one university only.
Uruguay
7 universities
- How you get in
- A completed secondary education; the public Universidad de la República has no entrance exam
- Taught in
- Spanish
- What it costs
- Not published as open data
- What graduates earn
- Not published as open data
- For students from abroad
- Not published as open data
- What we can't tell you
- The two public universities charge no undergraduate tuition, private fees are not published as data, and there are no entry scores because the public university admits without an exam.
Venezuela
160 universities, university institutes & colleges
- How you get in
- The national admission system (OPSU) assigns places at public universities; private ones admit directly
- Taught in
- Spanish
- What it costs
- Not published as open data
- What graduates earn
- Not published as open data
- For students from abroad
- Not published as open data
- What we can't tell you
- Venezuela publishes no enrolment, fees or admission figures per institution; this is the national catalogue's list of institutions, which carries no date.
Also on this site
- Caribbean universities — The University of the West Indies and each Caribbean country's official list of institutions, plus the schools in US federal aid.
What isn't here, and why
Countries are added only where an official source can be reused on a site like this one. Chile's and Ecuador's fee, enrolment and graduate statistics are licensed for non-commercial use only, so those two are registers without numbers; Mexico's applicants and places per programme sit in a yearbook that reserves all rights; Colombia's current statistics forbid commercial use. In Central America, Costa Rica is covered only for the University of Costa Rica, which publishes its admission cut-offs as open data; no other Costa Rican university's admission data was found under a reusable licence. Panama is covered from its accreditation council's lists, with enrolment for its public universities only — private universities' figures are confidential by law and published only as one national total. Guatemala is covered from the private-university council's (CEPS) register of universities and programmes — no enrolment, fees or outcomes are published per university. Honduras is covered from its higher-education directorate's student statistics — students per institution by sex since 2018, with no fees or programme lists; the directorate states no reuse terms, so only its figures are used. El Salvador is covered from its education ministry's enrolment by programme for the first term of 2023 and its October 2024 list of programmes in force — no fees or outcomes are published per institution. Haiti and Nicaragua are community-maintained lists from Wikidata, not official registers; the Nicaragua page leaves out the universities whose legal status the official gazette and UN documents record as cancelled, and says others may still be listed. Belize appears only on the Caribbean page, which links its education ministry. In the Caribbean the Dominican Republic has its own section, from its higher-education ministry's statistics yearbook — figures only, since the ministry reserves all rights in its publications. The Caribbean page lists the schools that take part in US federal student aid, from the U.S. Department of Education, and what each country's own regulator lists — the University of the West Indies' campuses and the official lists of Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago, names without figures; Barbados's and Dominica's regulators allow only personal, non-commercial use of their sites, so only the regulator is linked.
Figures are never converted into one currency or ranked across countries: each government measures cost and graduate earnings differently, and every figure above keeps its own definition.
Other regions
Each country's figures come from the source credited on its own pages, under that source's licence. This page adds nothing to them; counts and labels are CollegeMatcher's.