Arcadia University
Private College in Glenside, PA. Six-year graduation rate 67%. Median 10-year earnings $58,336.
The median ten-year earnings figure of $58,336 sits near the national middle rather than at either extreme. The six-year graduation rate of 67% is well above average and the clearest sign this school holds onto its students. Debt is the pressure point: a median of $27,000 at graduation.
Earnings: College Scorecard, median ten years after entry across students who received federal aid — completers and non-completers alike.
- ✓ 3-year loan default 0.1% — below national benchmark
Admissions
Arcadia University accepts 80% of applicants, which makes it accessible to most students who meet the baseline requirements. With 10,163 applications received, this is a school operating at national scale. Yield is low at 7%, so most admitted students do not end up enrolling. Read the score bands below narrowly: only 9% of enrolled first-years submitted an SAT score, and test-optional applicants are not represented in them.
Test score bands (middle 50% of submitters)
These bands describe the enrolled first-years who submitted a score, not the entering class. Where most students apply test-optional the submitters are a self-selected, higher-scoring group.
| Test | 25th–75th percentile | Submitted |
|---|---|---|
| SAT Evidence-Based Reading | 550–650 | 55 (9%) |
| SAT Math | 515–615 | |
| ACT Composite | — | — |
IPEDS Admissions · 2024
Apply at Arcadia University →Academics
67% of students finish within six years, putting completion well above the national norm. 79% of full-time first-years come back for year two, so about one in five are gone before sophomore year. The two rates sit near each other: few students who return for a second year are missing from the six-year completion figure. 25% transfer out. IPEDS does not follow them, so whether they finished elsewhere is not recorded either way. At 10:1, students get materially more instructor contact than at a typical public university.
Financial Aid
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · grant and loan rates against 1,799 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
Average net price — what students actually pay after grant aid — is $30,037 a year, at the high end of undergraduate cost. Aid is steeply need-based: families in the $0–30k band pay $23,127 while those at $110k+ pay $34,339. 88% of students get grant aid averaging $32,353, so the published price is a poor guide to what most pay. 65% of students borrow federally, so debt is the norm rather than the exception.
Entering first-year students
A different, smaller group than the rates above: full-time students in their first year of college anywhere. The grant series here also excludes the "other sources" counted in the all-undergraduate figure, so the two are not comparable.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · 415 students
Net price by family income
The same students as the headline above, limited to those who received Title IV federal aid — a narrower group, with a lower overall average. IPEDS publishes no combined figure across these bands, so they should not be averaged into one.
| Family income band | Average net price |
|---|---|
| $0–30k | $23,127 |
| $30–48k | $25,388 |
| $48–75k | $25,978 |
| $75–110k | $28,654 |
| $110k+ | $34,339 |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 1,162 of these 1,799 students, totalling $7,760,039 — an average of $6,678 each.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (Montgomery County) — budget these against any cost-of-attendance housing estimate.
HUD Fair Market Rents (40th-percentile gross rent incl. utilities) · FY2026
Veterans & GI Bill
VA GI Bill Comparison Tool (Veterans Affairs GIDS)