Bellarmine University
Private College in Louisville, KY. Six-year graduation rate 64%. Median 10-year earnings $62,069.
A decade after enrolling, the median Bellarmine University student earns $62,069 — comfortably above what the typical bachelor's-granting institution returns. 64% finish within six years — respectable, though a meaningful share still leave without a credential. Graduates carry a median of $25,000 in debt — in line with the national norm.
Earnings: College Scorecard, median ten years after entry across students who received federal aid — completers and non-completers alike.
- ✓ 3-year loan default 0.0% — below national benchmark
- ! Mobility score 0.9 — limited economic uplift documented
Admissions
With an acceptance rate of 86%, Bellarmine University takes nearly everyone who applies. 4,779 applications came in, enough to make the rates below reasonably stable year to year. Yield is low at 13%, so most admitted students do not end up enrolling. Read the score bands below narrowly: only 4% 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 | 510–630 | 23 (4%) |
| SAT Math | 520–620 | |
| ACT Composite | 23–28 | 140 (26%) |
IPEDS Admissions · 2024
Apply at Bellarmine University →Academics
Completion is middling: 64% finish inside six years. Retention of 75% means a meaningful slice of each entering class does not return. 22% transfer out. IPEDS does not follow them, so whether they finished elsewhere is not recorded either way. The 12:1 student-faculty ratio is small enough that seminar-sized classes are the norm. This is a private nonprofit four-year college, so read every rate on this page against that peer group specifically.
Financial Aid
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · grant and loan rates against 2,286 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
Net price lands at $23,165 a year on average, neither cheap nor punishing. Aid is steeply need-based: families in the $0–30k band pay $18,430 while those at $110k+ pay $29,194. Most students get help: 97% receive grants worth $36,123 on average. 50% 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 · 631 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 | $18,430 |
| $30–48k | $19,358 |
| $48–75k | $17,391 |
| $75–110k | $21,987 |
| $110k+ | $29,194 |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 1,150 of these 2,286 students, totalling $7,585,744 — an average of $6,596 each.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (Jefferson 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)