Chicago State University
Public College in Chicago, IL. Six-year graduation rate 15%. Median 10-year earnings $42,778.
Students who entered Chicago State University land at a median of $42,778 a decade later, close to what most four-year schools deliver. The six-year graduation rate is 16% — low enough that finishing cannot be treated as the default outcome. Graduates leave owing a median of $30,625 — a substantial load to service on these earnings. It also moves people — 3.7% of students climb from the bottom fifth of the income distribution 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 0.72 — elevated (above 0.60)
- ! Graduation rate 15% — below national average
Admissions
Selectivity is real here: only 43% of applicants are offered a place. The applicant pool is large — 10,638 in the most recent cycle — so the published rate reflects genuine competition rather than a small-sample quirk. Only 4% 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 Chicago State University →Academics
Only 16% finish within six years, so roughly four in five students leave without the credential. Just 57% of first-years come back — most of the completion gap opens in year one. The distance between those two figures is the part worth noticing — students return for a second year at a much higher rate than they graduate, so attrition here is spread across the middle years rather than concentrated in the first. The 37% transfer-out rate is high enough that a large share of this school's students are really passing through. Retention drops to 31% for part-time students, a gap worth weighing if full-time study is not realistic.
Financial Aid
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · grant and loan rates against 1,330 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
Students pay an average of $10,441 annually, well below typical undergraduate net price. Net price swings hard on family income here, from $9,073 at the $0–30k band to $28,427 at $110k+. Grant aid is widespread — 91% of students receive it, averaging $16,207. 88% 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 · 144 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 | $9,073 |
| $30–48k | $9,550 |
| $48–75k | $11,334 |
| $75–110k | $13,899 |
| $110k+ | $28,427 |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 1,168 of these 1,330 students, totalling $9,034,058 — an average of $7,735 each.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (Cook 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)