Fayetteville State University
Public College in Fayetteville, NC. Six-year graduation rate 38%. Median 10-year earnings $40,144.
Median earnings ten years after entry come to $40,144, below what most undergraduate institutions return — the central fact to weigh against cost here. Completion is the weak point: 39% graduate within six years. Median debt at graduation is $22,987, roughly typical for an undergraduate degree. On economic mobility, 2.4% 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.
- ✓ 3-year loan default 0.0% — below national benchmark
Admissions
82% of applicants get in, so the odds favor most reasonably prepared students. The applicant pool runs to 6,515, typical for a school of this reach. A 15% yield rate is low: the admitted pool is much larger than the entering class. Read the score bands below narrowly: only 2% 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 | 460–550 | 18 (2%) |
| SAT Math | 430–540 | |
| ACT Composite | 15–19 | 62 (8%) |
IPEDS Admissions · 2024
Apply at Fayetteville State University →Academics
Only 39% finish within six years, so roughly three in five students leave without the credential. 75% of full-time first-years come back for year two, so about one in four are gone before sophomore year. 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. 29% transfer out. IPEDS does not follow them, so whether they finished elsewhere is not recorded either way. The part-time picture is harder: 32% return, against 75% full-time.
Financial Aid
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · grant and loan rates against 5,493 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
Students pay an average of $7,811 annually, well below typical undergraduate net price. The gap between the $0–30k and $110k+ bands is narrow ($6,233 versus $14,112), meaning aid is not strongly need-weighted. Grant aid reaches 81% of students at an average of $7,029. Federal borrowing reaches 49% of students.
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 · 770 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 | $6,233 |
| $30–48k | $6,908 |
| $48–75k | $8,983 |
| $75–110k | $13,354 |
| $110k+ | $14,112 |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 2,684 of these 5,493 students, totalling $18,066,166 — an average of $6,731 each.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (Cumberland 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)