CUNY Queens College
Public College in Queens, NY. Six-year graduation rate 53%. Median 10-year earnings $62,763.
A decade after enrolling, the median CUNY Queens College student earns $62,763 — comfortably above what the typical bachelor's-granting institution returns. Six-year completion sits at 53%, near the national average for undergraduate institutions. Median debt at graduation is $10,298, a light load against those earnings. On economic mobility, 7.1% 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 0.16 — healthy (below the 0.40 threshold)
- ✓ Mobility score 7.1 — top quartile among US colleges
- ✓ 3-year loan default 0.0% — below national benchmark
Admissions
An acceptance rate of 64% puts CUNY Queens College on the accessible end — a realistic target for a broad range of applicants. With 22,189 applications received, this is a school operating at national scale. Yield is low at 12%, so most admitted students do not end up enrolling. The score bands below rest on the 7% 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 | 500–650 | 122 (7%) |
| SAT Math | 510–640 | |
| ACT Composite | — | — |
IPEDS Admissions · 2024
Apply at CUNY Queens College →Academics
Six-year completion sits at 53%, meaning about one in two students who enroll leave without finishing. First-year retention is 79% — the single largest point of attrition on this campus. That gap between coming back and finishing is where this school loses people — after the first year, not during it. 22% transfer out. IPEDS does not follow them, so whether they finished elsewhere is not recorded either way. The part-time picture is harder: 63% return, against 79% full-time.
Financial Aid
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · grant and loan rates against 13,060 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
Students pay an average of $5,728 annually, well below typical undergraduate net price. Aid is steeply need-based: families in the $0–30k band pay $1,541 while those at $110k+ pay $12,700. Grant aid reaches 66% of students at an average of $8,326. Only 9% 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.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · 1,998 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 | $1,541 |
| $30–48k | $3,133 |
| $48–75k | $6,785 |
| $75–110k | $9,110 |
| $110k+ | $12,700 |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 1,168 of these 13,060 students, totalling $6,767,307 — an average of $5,794 each.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (Queens 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)