Bethune-Cookman University
Private College in Daytona Beach, FL. Six-year graduation rate 31%. Median 10-year earnings $38,518.
Students who entered Bethune-Cookman University reach a median of $38,518 a decade later, a figure that trails the typical four-year outcome. The six-year graduation rate is 31% — low enough that finishing cannot be treated as the default outcome. Debt is the pressure point: a median of $31,000 at graduation. Mobility is where this school separates itself: 2.2% of students move from the bottom income quintile to the top.
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
- ! Debt-to-income ratio 0.80 — elevated (above 0.60)
- ! Graduation rate 31% — below national average
Admissions
With an acceptance rate of 88%, Bethune-Cookman University takes nearly everyone who applies. 10,994 students applied, a pool deep enough to make the acceptance rate meaningful. A 10% yield rate is low: the admitted pool is much larger than the entering class. 46% of enrolled first-years submitted an SAT score. The bands below describe the middle half of that group, not of the class.
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 | 430–510 | 465 (46%) |
| SAT Math | 400–480 | |
| ACT Composite | — | — |
IPEDS Admissions · 2024
Apply at Bethune-Cookman University →Academics
Completion is the problem here: 31% graduate within six years. Retention of 62% means a meaningful slice of each entering class does not return. That gap between coming back and finishing is where this school loses people — after the first year, not during it. 38% of students transfer out, which reframes what the graduation rate above is measuring. The student-faculty ratio is 17:1 — typical, which in practice means large lectures early and smaller classes in the major.
Financial Aid
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · grant and loan rates against 2,415 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
At $12,476 a year on average after grant aid, cost is low here relative to most undergraduate institutions. The gap between the $0–30k and $110k+ bands is narrow ($10,896 versus $18,654), meaning aid is not strongly need-weighted. 92% of students get grant aid averaging $15,194, so the published price is a poor guide to what most pay. Most students borrow — 82% take federal loans to cover the gap.
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 · 698 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 | $10,896 |
| $30–48k | $11,487 |
| $48–75k | $14,346 |
| $75–110k | $17,882 |
| $110k+ | $18,654 |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 1,981 of these 2,415 students, totalling $18,388,144 — an average of $9,282 each.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (Volusia 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)