Centenary University
Private College in Hackettstown, NJ. Six-year graduation rate 56%. Median 10-year earnings $53,726.
Students who entered Centenary University land at a median of $53,726 a decade later, close to what most four-year schools deliver. The six-year graduation rate is 56%, meaning about two in five students who start do not finish. Median debt at graduation is $23,163, 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
- ! Mobility score 1.0 — limited economic uplift documented
Admissions
83% of applicants get in, so the odds favor most reasonably prepared students. 1,749 applications came in, enough to make the rates below reasonably stable year to year. Only 15% of admitted students enroll — the great majority of admits go elsewhere or nowhere.
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 | — | — |
| SAT Math | — | |
| ACT Composite | — | — |
IPEDS Admissions · 2024
Apply at Centenary University →Academics
Completion is middling: 56% finish inside six years. Retention of 78% means a meaningful slice of each entering class does not return. The two rates sit near each other: few students who return for a second year are missing from the six-year completion figure. Transfer-out runs to 28% — common enough at this school that the completion rate is measuring a smaller group than the entering class. A 12:1 ratio points to small classes and accessible faculty.
Financial Aid
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · grant and loan rates against 934 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
Students pay an average of $22,640 annually once grants are applied. Net price swings hard on family income here, from $13,329 at the $0–30k band to $28,735 at $110k+. Grant aid reaches 64% of students at an average of $44,235. Borrowing is widespread: 64% take federal loans.
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 · 178 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 | $13,329 |
| $30–48k | $16,047 |
| $48–75k | $21,277 |
| $75–110k | $23,306 |
| $110k+ | $28,735 |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 596 of these 934 students, totalling $3,422,599 — an average of $5,743 each.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (Warren County) — budget these against any cost-of-attendance housing estimate.
HUD Fair Market Rents (40th-percentile gross rent incl. utilities) · FY2026
Veterans & GI Bill
Heightened Cash Monitoring (Financial Responsibility); School placed on Heightened Cash Monitoring
VA GI Bill Comparison Tool (Veterans Affairs GIDS)