Howard University
Private Research University in Washington, DC. Six-year graduation rate 70%. Median 10-year earnings $63,066.
Ten-year median earnings of $63,066 are the headline number here, and they are strong ones. 70% graduate within six years, so most students who start here finish here. Graduates carry a median of $24,500 in debt — in line with the national norm. On economic mobility, 4.0% 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
At 41%, the acceptance rate makes Howard University a school worth applying to with alternatives in hand. The applicant pool is large — 34,211 in the most recent cycle — so the published rate reflects genuine competition rather than a small-sample quirk. Only 19% of admitted students enroll — the great majority of admits go elsewhere or nowhere. The score bands below rest on the 23% 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 | 560–670 | 626 (23%) |
| SAT Math | 530–650 | |
| ACT Composite | 22–28 | 257 (9%) |
IPEDS Admissions · 2024
Apply at Howard University →Academics
70% of students finish within six years, putting completion well above the national norm. 91% of full-time first-years return for a second year — a healthy figure. Retention and graduation track closely, so most of the attrition shows up in the first year rather than after it. Transfer-out runs to 20% — common enough at this school that the completion rate is measuring a smaller group than the entering class. At 13:1, students get materially more instructor contact than at a typical public university.
Financial Aid
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · grant and loan rates against 9,603 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
Average net price — what students actually pay after grant aid — is $33,368 a year, at the high end of undergraduate cost. Net price swings hard on family income here, from $46,051 at the $0–30k band to $54,270 at $110k+. Grant aid is widespread — 92% of students receive it, averaging $21,995. 62% of students borrow federally, so debt is the norm rather than the exception.
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 · 2,261 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 | $46,051 |
| $30–48k | $47,477 |
| $48–75k | $50,245 |
| $75–110k | $52,981 |
| $110k+ | $54,270 |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 5,991 of these 9,603 students, totalling $40,395,827 — an average of $6,743 each.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (District of Columbia) — 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)