Carroll College
Private College in Helena, MT. Six-year graduation rate 69%. Median 10-year earnings $61,772.
Ten-year median earnings of $61,772 are the headline number here, and they are strong ones. The six-year graduation rate of 69% is well above average and the clearest sign this school holds onto its students. Median debt at graduation is $25,757, 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.
- ✓ 3-year loan default 0.0% — below national benchmark
Admissions
71% of applicants get in, so the odds favor most reasonably prepared students. 1,854 applications came in, enough to make the rates below reasonably stable year to year. Yield sits at 22% — the remainder of admitted students enroll elsewhere or not at all. Read the score bands below narrowly: only 21% 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 | 540–660 | 61 (21%) |
| SAT Math | 510–640 | |
| ACT Composite | 21–27 | 121 (43%) |
IPEDS Admissions · 2024
Apply at Carroll College →Academics
A 69% six-year graduation rate is the strongest academic signal on this page. 82% of full-time first-years return for a second year — a healthy figure. The two rates sit near each other: few students who return for a second year are missing from the six-year completion figure. The 12:1 student-faculty ratio is small enough that seminar-sized classes are the norm. As a private nonprofit four-year college, the relevant comparison is other four-year schools rather than the national average across all institutions.
Financial Aid
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · grant and loan rates against 1,052 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
Average net price after grant aid is $25,575 a year — mid-range for a four-year institution. Aid is steeply need-based: families in the $0–30k band pay $17,072 while those at $110k+ pay $28,005. 99% of students get grant aid averaging $30,471, so the published price is a poor guide to what most pay. 45% 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 · 273 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 | $17,072 |
| $30–48k | $16,329 |
| $48–75k | $19,139 |
| $75–110k | $23,919 |
| $110k+ | $28,005 |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 476 of these 1,052 students, totalling $3,007,429 — an average of $6,318 each.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (Lewis and Clark 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)