Clark University
Private Research University in Worcester, MA. Six-year graduation rate 77%. Median 10-year earnings $62,381.
Ten-year median earnings of $62,381 are the headline number here, and they are strong ones. 77% graduate within six years, so most students who start here finish here. Debt at graduation runs to a median of $26,759, neither a bargain nor a burden. On economic mobility, 2.2% of students travel from the bottom income quintile to the top.
Earnings: College Scorecard, median ten years after entry across students who received federal aid — completers and non-completers alike.
- ✓ Graduation rate 77% — well above the national average
- ✓ 3-year loan default 0.0% — below national benchmark
Admissions
Selectivity is real here: only 40% of applicants are offered a place. The applicant pool is large — 11,452 in the most recent cycle — so the published rate reflects genuine competition rather than a small-sample quirk. Yield is low at 11%, so most admitted students do not end up enrolling. Read the score bands below narrowly: only 16% 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 | 658–740 | 77 (16%) |
| SAT Math | 630–720 | |
| ACT Composite | 30–33 | 23 (5%) |
IPEDS Admissions · 2024
Apply at Clark University →Academics
Six-year completion runs to 77% — students who start here overwhelmingly finish here. 86% of full-time first-years return for a second year — a healthy figure. Transfer-out runs to 15% — common enough at this school that the completion rate is measuring a smaller group than the entering class. At 8:1, students get materially more instructor contact than at a typical public university. 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 2,329 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
Net price averages $33,865 annually, so cost is the first thing to weigh here. The income table below is the number that matters — $18,188 at $0–30k versus $39,035 at $110k+. 98% of students get grant aid averaging $33,077, so the published price is a poor guide to what most pay. Borrowing is widespread: 59% 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 · 629 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 | $18,188 |
| $30–48k | $13,313 |
| $48–75k | $21,971 |
| $75–110k | $25,062 |
| $110k+ | $39,035 |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 1,368 of these 2,329 students, totalling $8,830,241 — an average of $6,455 each.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (Worcester 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)