Bluffton University
Private College in Bluffton, OH. Six-year graduation rate 53%. Median 10-year earnings $49,547.
Students who entered Bluffton University land at a median of $49,547 a decade later, close to what most four-year schools deliver. The six-year graduation rate is 53%, meaning about one in two students who start do not finish. Median debt at graduation reaches $27,000, heavy enough to shape the years right after the degree.
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 0.2 — limited economic uplift documented
Admissions
67% of applicants get in, so the odds favor most reasonably prepared students. 3,128 applications came in, enough to make the rates below reasonably stable year to year. Only 9% of admitted students enroll — the great majority of admits go elsewhere or nowhere. The score bands below rest on the 14% 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 | 430–550 | 26 (14%) |
| SAT Math | 430–580 | |
| ACT Composite | 16–22 | 118 (63%) |
IPEDS Admissions · 2024
Apply at Bluffton University →Academics
53% graduate within six years — average, but that average still hides a large group who do not. Retention of 60% means a meaningful slice of each entering class does not return. The 33% transfer-out rate is high enough that a large share of this school's students are really passing through. A 11:1 ratio points to small classes and accessible faculty. 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 596 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
Net price lands at $20,429 a year on average, neither cheap nor punishing. Aid is steeply need-based: families in the $0–30k band pay $16,363 while those at $110k+ pay $26,321. Grant aid is widespread — 99% of students receive it, averaging $29,824. 77% 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 · 190 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 | $16,363 |
| $30–48k | $16,689 |
| $48–75k | $18,469 |
| $75–110k | $21,233 |
| $110k+ | $26,321 |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 461 of these 596 students, totalling $3,216,759 — an average of $6,978 each.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (Allen 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)