DePauw University
Private College in Greencastle, IN. Six-year graduation rate 75%. Median 10-year earnings $70,527.
Students who entered DePauw University reach a median of $70,527 ten years later, which puts this school in the upper band of undergraduate earnings outcomes. Completion is a strength: 75% of students finish within six years. Graduates leave owing a median of $27,000 — a substantial load to service on these earnings.
Earnings: College Scorecard, median ten years after entry across students who received federal aid — completers and non-completers alike.
- ✓ 3-year loan default 0.0% — below national benchmark
- ! Mobility score 0.9 — limited economic uplift documented
Admissions
At 57%, the acceptance rate makes DePauw University a school worth applying to with alternatives in hand. 6,683 students applied in the most recent cycle — a mid-sized pool drawn mostly from the surrounding region. Yield is low at 13%, so most admitted students do not end up enrolling. Read the score bands below narrowly: only 39% 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 | 600–690 | 198 (39%) |
| SAT Math | 600–720 | |
| ACT Composite | 28–32 | 70 (14%) |
IPEDS Admissions · 2024
Apply at DePauw University →Academics
75% of students finish within six years, putting completion well above the national norm. Retention is strong at 89%, and first-year attrition is where most degrees are lost. Retention and completion are close, which places the gap between entering and finishing almost entirely in year one. A 10:1 ratio points to small classes and accessible faculty. Judge these figures against other institutions of the same type — sector explains more of the variation in completion than any single campus factor.
Financial Aid
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · grant and loan rates against 1,807 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
Average net price — what students actually pay after grant aid — is $31,411 a year, at the high end of undergraduate cost. Net price swings hard on family income here, from $11,820 at the $0–30k band to $31,225 at $110k+. 99% of students get grant aid averaging $42,882, so the published price is a poor guide to what most pay. About 32% 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 · 500 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 | $11,820 |
| $30–48k | $13,957 |
| $48–75k | $12,979 |
| $75–110k | $21,774 |
| $110k+ | $31,225 |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 577 of these 1,807 students, totalling $3,678,907 — an average of $6,376 each.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (Putnam 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)