DePaul University
Private Research University in Chicago, IL. Six-year graduation rate 68%. Median 10-year earnings $68,751.
Ten-year median earnings of $68,751 are the headline number here, and they are strong ones. 68% graduate within six years, so most students who start here finish here. Median debt at graduation is $23,168, roughly typical for an undergraduate degree. On economic mobility, 2.9% 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 0.34 — healthy (below the 0.40 threshold)
- ✓ 3-year loan default 0.0% — below national benchmark
Admissions
76% of applicants get in, so the odds favor most reasonably prepared students. The applicant pool is large — 31,266 in the most recent cycle — so the published rate reflects genuine competition rather than a small-sample quirk. Only 11% of admitted students enroll — the great majority of admits go elsewhere or nowhere. Read the score bands below narrowly: only 31% 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 | 580–670 | 803 (31%) |
| SAT Math | 560–660 | |
| ACT Composite | 25–31 | 296 (12%) |
IPEDS Admissions · 2024
Apply at DePaul University →Academics
A 68% six-year graduation rate is the strongest academic signal on this page. First-year retention of 86% shows the cohort holds together through the hardest year. Retention and completion are close, which places the gap between entering and finishing almost entirely in year one. 18% transfer out. IPEDS does not follow them, so whether they finished elsewhere is not recorded either way. The student-faculty ratio is 17:1 — typical, which in practice means large lectures early and smaller classes in the major.
Financial Aid
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · grant and loan rates against 14,283 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
Average net price — what students actually pay after grant aid — is $34,135 a year, at the high end of undergraduate cost. The income table below is the number that matters — $27,359 at $0–30k versus $37,092 at $110k+. Grant aid is widespread — 93% of students receive it, averaging $25,716. 46% 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 · 2,939 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 | $27,359 |
| $30–48k | $25,950 |
| $48–75k | $28,687 |
| $75–110k | $31,057 |
| $110k+ | $37,092 |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 6,591 of these 14,283 students, totalling $41,636,030 — an average of $6,317 each.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (Cook 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)