College of
Staten Island CUNY
Public College in Staten Island, NY. Six-year graduation rate 48%. Median 10-year earnings $53,501.
The median ten-year earnings figure of $53,501 sits near the national middle rather than at either extreme. Six-year completion sits at 48%, near the national average for undergraduate institutions. Graduates leave owing a median of $14,350 — modest by four-year standards. Mobility is where this school separates itself: 4.1% of students move 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.
- ✓ Debt-to-income ratio 0.27 — healthy (below the 0.40 threshold)
- ✓ 3-year loan default 0.0% — below national benchmark
Admissions
With an acceptance rate of 92%, College of Staten Island CUNY takes nearly everyone who applies. The applicant pool is large — 14,002 in the most recent cycle — so the published rate reflects genuine competition rather than a small-sample quirk. Yield is low at 17%, so most admitted students do not end up enrolling. Read the score bands below narrowly: only 7% 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 | 460–620 | 156 (7%) |
| SAT Math | 430–630 | |
| ACT Composite | — | — |
IPEDS Admissions · 2024
Apply at College of Staten Island CUNY →Academics
Completion is middling: 48% finish inside six years. First-year retention is 76% — the single largest point of attrition on this campus. 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. Transfer-out runs to 24% — common enough at this school that the completion rate is measuring a smaller group than the entering class. Retention drops to 52% 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 9,387 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
At $6,525 a year on average after grant aid, cost is low here relative to most undergraduate institutions. Net price swings hard on family income here, from $3,903 at the $0–30k band to $13,444 at $110k+. 68% of students receive grant aid, averaging $8,105 — common but not automatic. 11% borrow federally — a low rate, though it covers federal loans only.
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 · 2,163 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 | $3,903 |
| $30–48k | $4,473 |
| $48–75k | $7,364 |
| $75–110k | $9,923 |
| $110k+ | $13,444 |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 1,021 of these 9,387 students, totalling $5,921,914 — an average of $5,800 each.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (Richmond 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)