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Public College

CUNY Brooklyn College

Public College in Brooklyn, NY. Six-year graduation rate 54%. Median 10-year earnings $60,752.

Verdict High-mobility campus
CUNY Brooklyn College · Campus
Median earnings · 10 yr
$60,752
Median debt at grad
$11,000
Mobility score
8.1
% bottom→top quintile
Graduation rate
53.9%
Federal loan default
0%

Students who entered CUNY Brooklyn College reach a median of $60,752 ten years later, which puts this school in the upper band of undergraduate earnings outcomes. The six-year graduation rate is 54%, meaning about one in two students who start do not finish. Graduates leave owing a median of $11,000 — modest by four-year standards. Mobility is where this school separates itself: 8.1% 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.

Green Flags
  • Debt-to-income ratio 0.18 — healthy (below the 0.40 threshold)
  • Mobility score 8.1 — top quartile among US colleges
  • 3-year loan default 0.0% — below national benchmark
Red Flags

Admissions

Acceptance rate
58%
Applicants
30,224
Yield rate
10.1%

At 58%, the acceptance rate makes CUNY Brooklyn College a school worth applying to with alternatives in hand. 30,224 students applied, a pool deep enough to make the acceptance rate meaningful. A 10% yield rate is low: the admitted pool is much larger than the entering class. Read the score bands below narrowly: only 9% 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 460–660 168 (9%)
SAT Math 490–680
ACT Composite

IPEDS Admissions · 2024

Apply at CUNY Brooklyn College →

Academics

Full-time retention
80%
Transfer-out rate
24%
Student:faculty
13:1

Completion is middling: 54% finish inside six years. Retention is strong at 80%, and first-year attrition is where most degrees are lost. 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. 24% transfer out. IPEDS does not follow them, so whether they finished elsewhere is not recorded either way. Part-time students fare worse, returning at 67% — relevant if you plan to work while enrolled.

Financial Aid

Average net price
$4,512
Full-time, first-time undergraduates paying the in-state rate who were awarded grant or scholarship aid
% receiving grants
77%
degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
% receiving federal loans
7%
degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates

IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · grant and loan rates against 10,443 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates

Average net price is $4,512 a year after grant aid — low for a four-year institution, though your own figure depends on aid eligibility. The income table below is the number that matters — $1,029 at $0–30k versus $12,254 at $110k+. 77% of students receive grant aid, averaging $8,569 — common but not automatic. Only 7% take federal loans. Private borrowing is not captured in this figure.

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.

% receiving grants
90%
Average grant
$9,482

IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · 1,504 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 $1,029
$30–48k $2,287
$48–75k $6,193
$75–110k $8,917
$110k+ $12,254

IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24

Federal student loans went to 760 of these 10,443 students, totalling $4,911,869 — an average of $6,463 each.

IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24

Local housing costs

Typical rents near campus (Kings County) — budget these against any cost-of-attendance housing estimate.

Studio
$2,529/mo
1 bedroom
$2,655/mo
2 bedroom (whole unit)
$2,910/mo

HUD Fair Market Rents (40th-percentile gross rent incl. utilities) · FY2026

Veterans & GI Bill

GI Bill students
132
Yellow Ribbon
No
Principles of Excellence
Yes

VA GI Bill Comparison Tool (Veterans Affairs GIDS)

Compare CUNY Brooklyn College with peer institutions

How we evaluate CUNY Brooklyn College

IPEDS
US Department of Education
College Scorecard
Post-grad earnings
Census PSEO
Earnings by major
Opportunity Insights
Mobility by institution
Read our full methodology →