Guilford College
Private College in Greensboro, NC. Six-year graduation rate 46%. Median 10-year earnings $47,590.
Students who entered Guilford College land at a median of $47,590 a decade later, close to what most four-year schools deliver. Six-year completion sits at 46%, near the national average for undergraduate institutions. Median debt at graduation is $26,000, roughly typical for an undergraduate degree.
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 0.8 — limited economic uplift documented
Admissions
80% of applicants get in, so the odds favor most reasonably prepared students. 4,204 applications came in, enough to make the rates below reasonably stable year to year. Only 10% of admitted students enroll — the great majority of admits go elsewhere or nowhere. Read the score bands below narrowly: only 5% 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 | 550–650 | 16 (5%) |
| SAT Math | 570–610 | |
| ACT Composite | 18–24 | 82 (24%) |
IPEDS Admissions · 2024
Apply at Guilford College →Academics
Completion is middling: 46% finish inside six years. Retention of 65% means a meaningful slice of each entering class does not return. Retention and graduation track closely, so most of the attrition shows up in the first year rather than after it. With 34% transferring out, this functions substantially as a stepping stone. The 12:1 student-faculty ratio is small enough that seminar-sized classes are the norm.
Financial Aid
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · grant and loan rates against 1,017 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
Students pay an average of $22,270 annually once grants are applied. Net price swings hard on family income here, from $18,367 at the $0–30k band to $49,368 at $110k+. Most students get help: 98% receive grants worth $32,869 on average. Most students borrow — 58% take federal loans to cover the gap.
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 · 365 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 | $18,367 |
| $30–48k | $22,825 |
| $48–75k | $34,680 |
| $75–110k | $49,275 |
| $110k+ | $49,368 |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 588 of these 1,017 students, totalling $3,650,789 — an average of $6,209 each.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (Guilford County) — budget these against any cost-of-attendance housing estimate.
HUD Fair Market Rents (40th-percentile gross rent incl. utilities) · FY2026
Veterans & GI Bill
Heightened Cash Monitoring (Compliance Audit Late or Missing); School placed on Heightened Cash Monitoring
VA GI Bill Comparison Tool (Veterans Affairs GIDS)