Case Western
Reserve University
Private Research University in Cleveland, OH. Six-year graduation rate 87%. Median 10-year earnings $87,989.
Ten-year median earnings of $87,989 are the headline number here, and they are strong ones. The six-year graduation rate of 87% is well above average and the clearest sign this school holds onto its students. Graduates carry a median of $24,000 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.
- ✓ Debt-to-income ratio 0.27 — healthy (below the 0.40 threshold)
- ✓ Graduation rate 87% — well above the national average
- ✓ 3-year loan default 0.0% — below national benchmark
Admissions
Selectivity is real here: only 37% of applicants are offered a place. 37,082 students applied, a pool deep enough to make the acceptance rate meaningful. A 12% yield rate is low: the admitted pool is much larger than the entering class. The score bands below rest on the 46% 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 | 700–760 | 745 (46%) |
| SAT Math | 730–780 | |
| ACT Composite | 32–34 | 376 (23%) |
IPEDS Admissions · 2024
Apply at Case Western Reserve University →Academics
Six-year completion runs to 87% — students who start here overwhelmingly finish here. First-year retention of 92% shows the cohort holds together through the hardest year. At 9:1, students get materially more instructor contact than at a typical public university. Judge these figures against other institutions of the same type — sector explains more of the variation in completion than any single campus factor. 6,186 undergraduates makes this a mid-sized institution.
Financial Aid
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · grant and loan rates against 6,108 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
Students pay $44,000 a year on average after aid, a premium price that the earnings data has to justify. Aid is steeply need-based: families in the $0–30k band pay $19,025 while those at $110k+ pay $53,061. 85% of students get grant aid averaging $40,215, so the published price is a poor guide to what most pay. About 48% borrow federally, roughly the national pattern.
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 · 1,546 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 | $19,025 |
| $30–48k | $18,506 |
| $48–75k | $20,849 |
| $75–110k | $26,159 |
| $110k+ | $53,061 |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 2,933 of these 6,108 students, totalling $17,956,266 — an average of $6,122 each.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (Cuyahoga 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)