Clarkson University
Private Research University in Potsdam, NY. Six-year graduation rate 75%. Median 10-year earnings $89,696.
Students who entered Clarkson University reach a median of $89,696 ten years later, which puts this school in the upper band of undergraduate earnings outcomes. Completion is a strength: 75% of students finish within six years. Graduates carry a median of $26,000 in debt — in line with the national norm. It also moves people — 3.0% 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.
- ✓ Debt-to-income ratio 0.29 — healthy (below the 0.40 threshold)
- ✓ 3-year loan default 0.0% — below national benchmark
Admissions
Clarkson University accepts 77% of applicants, which makes it accessible to most students who meet the baseline requirements. 6,661 students applied in the most recent cycle — a mid-sized pool drawn mostly from the surrounding region. A 10% yield rate is low: the admitted pool is much larger than the entering class. Score ranges below describe the middle half of score submitters among enrolled first-years; students who applied test-optional 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 | 590–690 | 247 (51%) |
| SAT Math | 610–700 | |
| ACT Composite | 25–32 | 53 (11%) |
IPEDS Admissions · 2024
Apply at Clarkson University →Academics
Six-year completion runs to 75% — students who start here overwhelmingly finish here. Retention is strong at 85%, and first-year attrition is where most degrees are lost. Transfer-out runs to 18% — common enough at this school that the completion rate is measuring a smaller group than the entering class. The 13:1 student-faculty ratio is small enough that seminar-sized classes are the norm. Judge these figures against other institutions of the same type — sector explains more of the variation in completion than any single campus factor.
Financial Aid
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · grant and loan rates against 2,406 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
Students pay $32,406 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 $21,335 while those at $110k+ pay $35,757. 99% of students get grant aid averaging $43,518, so the published price is a poor guide to what most pay. Most students borrow — 64% take federal loans to cover the gap.
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 · 565 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 | $21,335 |
| $30–48k | $19,934 |
| $48–75k | $23,321 |
| $75–110k | $30,990 |
| $110k+ | $35,757 |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 1,541 of these 2,406 students, totalling $9,686,137 — an average of $6,286 each.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (St. Lawrence 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 (Compliance Audit Late or Missing); School placed on Heightened Cash Monitoring
VA GI Bill Comparison Tool (Veterans Affairs GIDS)