Colorado College
Private College in Colorado Springs, CO. Six-year graduation rate 88%. Median 10-year earnings $65,222.
A decade after enrolling, the median Colorado College student earns $65,222 — comfortably above what the typical bachelor's-granting institution returns. The six-year graduation rate of 88% is well above average and the clearest sign this school holds onto its students. Debt at graduation runs to a median of $18,257, neither a bargain nor a burden.
Earnings: College Scorecard, median ten years after entry across students who received federal aid — completers and non-completers alike.
- ✓ Debt-to-income ratio 0.28 — healthy (below the 0.40 threshold)
- ✓ Graduation rate 88% — well above the national average
- ✓ 3-year loan default 0.0% — below national benchmark
Admissions
This is a highly selective admit: 18% of applicants receive an offer. The applicant pool runs to 8,511, typical for a school of this reach. 30% of those admitted enroll, which is unremarkable in either direction. The score bands below rest on the 29% of enrolled first-years who submitted an SAT score — a self-selected group, and not a cutoff.
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 | 640–730 | 136 (29%) |
| SAT Math | 590–730 | |
| ACT Composite | 29–33 | 77 (16%) |
IPEDS Admissions · 2024
Apply at Colorado College →Academics
Six-year completion runs to 88% — students who start here overwhelmingly finish here. 94% of full-time first-years return for a second year — a healthy figure. At 9:1, 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. With 2,145 undergraduates, the school sits in the middle of the size distribution.
Financial Aid
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · grant and loan rates against 2,139 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
Average net price — what students actually pay after grant aid — is $36,123 a year, at the high end of undergraduate cost. Net price swings hard on family income here, from $9,217 at the $0–30k band to $44,141 at $110k+. Grant aid reaches 63% of students at an average of $49,383. About 26% borrow federally, roughly the national pattern.
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 · 517 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 | $9,217 |
| $30–48k | $15,477 |
| $48–75k | $12,568 |
| $75–110k | $24,129 |
| $110k+ | $44,141 |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 552 of these 2,139 students, totalling $3,177,879 — an average of $5,757 each.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (El Paso 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)