Baylor University
Private Research University in Waco, TX. Six-year graduation rate 80%. Median 10-year earnings $65,793.
Ten-year median earnings of $65,793 are the headline number here, and they are strong ones. Completion is a strength: 80% of students finish within six years. Median debt at graduation is $23,000, roughly typical for an undergraduate degree.
Earnings: College Scorecard, median ten years after entry across students who received federal aid — completers and non-completers alike.
- ✓ Debt-to-income ratio 0.35 — healthy (below the 0.40 threshold)
- ✓ Graduation rate 80% — well above the national average
- ✓ 3-year loan default 0.0% — below national benchmark
Admissions
At 51%, the acceptance rate makes Baylor University a school worth applying to with alternatives in hand. 46,946 students applied, a pool deep enough to make the acceptance rate meaningful. A 14% yield rate is low: the admitted pool is much larger than the entering class. The score bands below rest on the 32% of enrolled first-years who submitted an SAT score — a self-selected group, and not a cutoff.
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 | 610–700 | 1,080 (32%) |
| SAT Math | 590–700 | |
| ACT Composite | 27–32 | 620 (18%) |
IPEDS Admissions · 2024
Apply at Baylor University →Academics
80% of students finish within six years, putting completion well above the national norm. First-year retention of 91% shows the cohort holds together through the hardest year. The 15:1 student-faculty ratio is small enough that seminar-sized classes are the norm. Judge these figures against other institutions of the same type — sector explains more of the variation in completion than any single campus factor. 15,155 undergraduates puts this among the larger schools, which usually means more choice and less individual attention.
Financial Aid
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · grant and loan rates against 15,007 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
Students pay $47,001 a year on average after aid, a premium price that the earnings data has to justify. Net price swings hard on family income here, from $22,024 at the $0–30k band to $47,895 at $110k+. 90% of students get grant aid averaging $27,254, so the published price is a poor guide to what most pay. 32% of students take federal loans, a middling borrowing rate.
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 · 3,315 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 | $22,024 |
| $30–48k | $21,530 |
| $48–75k | $33,902 |
| $75–110k | $38,852 |
| $110k+ | $47,895 |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 4,735 of these 15,007 students, totalling $30,941,640 — an average of $6,535 each.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (McLennan 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)