Gettysburg College
Private College in Gettysburg, PA. Six-year graduation rate 83%. Median 10-year earnings $71,517.
Ten-year median earnings of $71,517 are the headline number here, and they are strong ones. 83% graduate within six years, so most students who start here finish here. Graduates carry a median of $26,999 in debt — in line with the national norm.
Earnings: College Scorecard, median ten years after entry across students who received federal aid — completers and non-completers alike.
- ✓ Graduation rate 83% — well above the national average
- ✓ 3-year loan default 0.0% — below national benchmark
- ! Mobility score 0.8 — limited economic uplift documented
Admissions
Selectivity is real here: only 39% of applicants are offered a place. 8,366 students applied in the most recent cycle — a mid-sized pool drawn mostly from the surrounding region. Yield is low at 16%, so most admitted students do not end up enrolling. The score bands below rest on the 27% 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 | 640–720 | 135 (27%) |
| SAT Math | 630–740 | |
| ACT Composite | 29–32 | 41 (8%) |
IPEDS Admissions · 2024
Apply at Gettysburg College →Academics
Six-year completion runs to 83% — students who start here overwhelmingly finish here. Retention is strong at 91%, and first-year attrition is where most degrees are lost. A 15% transfer-out rate accounts for part of that gap: those students left for another institution rather than dropping out, and the graduation rate above counts them as non-completers here. At 10:1, students get materially more instructor contact than at a typical public university. This is a private nonprofit four-year college, so read every rate on this page against that peer group specifically.
Financial Aid
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · grant and loan rates against 2,327 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
Average net price — what students actually pay after grant aid — is $32,769 a year, at the high end of undergraduate cost. Net price swings hard on family income here, from $13,625 at the $0–30k band to $44,863 at $110k+. Most students get help: 96% receive grants worth $46,929 on average. 48% 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 · 603 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 | $13,625 |
| $30–48k | $13,184 |
| $48–75k | $21,261 |
| $75–110k | $28,822 |
| $110k+ | $44,863 |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 1,113 of these 2,327 students, totalling $7,226,541 — an average of $6,493 each.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (Adams 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)