Colorado School
of Mines
Public Research University in Golden, CO. Six-year graduation rate 82%. Median 10-year earnings $97,335.
Ten-year median earnings of $97,335 are the headline number here, and they are strong ones. 82% graduate within six years, so most students who start here finish here. Debt at graduation runs to a median of $23,000, neither a bargain nor a burden. On economic mobility, 2.5% 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.
- ✓ Debt-to-income ratio 0.24 — healthy (below the 0.40 threshold)
- ✓ Graduation rate 82% — well above the national average
- ✓ 3-year loan default 0.0% — below national benchmark
Admissions
61% of applicants get in, so the odds favor most reasonably prepared students. The applicant pool is large — 11,436 in the most recent cycle — so the published rate reflects genuine competition rather than a small-sample quirk. Yield sits at 23% — the remainder of admitted students enroll elsewhere or not at all. The score bands below rest on the 42% 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 | 650–730 | 670 (42%) |
| SAT Math | 670–750 | |
| ACT Composite | 29–33 | 288 (18%) |
IPEDS Admissions · 2024
Apply at Colorado School of Mines →Academics
A 82% six-year graduation rate is the strongest academic signal on this page. Retention is strong at 93%, and first-year attrition is where most degrees are lost. 13% transfer out. IPEDS does not follow them, so whether they finished elsewhere is not recorded either way. At 18:1, class sizes land in the normal range for an undergraduate institution. As a public four-year university, the relevant comparison is other four-year schools rather than the national average across all institutions.
Financial Aid
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · grant and loan rates against 5,821 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
Average net price — what students actually pay after grant aid — is $29,925 a year, at the high end of undergraduate cost. Aid is steeply need-based: families in the $0–30k band pay $16,849 while those at $110k+ pay $35,112. 88% of students get grant aid averaging $11,139, so the published price is a poor guide to what most pay. 32% of students take federal loans, a middling borrowing rate.
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 · 1,443 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 | $16,849 |
| $30–48k | $18,162 |
| $48–75k | $22,192 |
| $75–110k | $28,183 |
| $110k+ | $35,112 |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 1,846 of these 5,821 students, totalling $11,789,925 — an average of $6,387 each.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (Jefferson 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)