Kean University
Public College in Union, NJ. Six-year graduation rate 47%. Median 10-year earnings $57,237.
The median ten-year earnings figure of $57,237 sits near the national middle rather than at either extreme. The six-year graduation rate is 47%, meaning about one in two students who start do not finish. Median debt at graduation is $23,250, roughly typical for an undergraduate degree. On economic mobility, 3.4% 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
An acceptance rate of 76% puts Kean University on the accessible end — a realistic target for a broad range of applicants. 13,936 students applied, a pool deep enough to make the acceptance rate meaningful. A 19% yield rate is low: the admitted pool is much larger than the entering class. The score bands below rest on the 1% 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 | 460–565 | 23 (1%) |
| SAT Math | 470–585 | |
| ACT Composite | — | — |
IPEDS Admissions · 2024
Apply at Kean University →Academics
Completion is middling: 47% finish inside six years. Retention of 76% means a meaningful slice of each entering class does not return. 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. Transfer-out runs to 24% — common enough at this school that the completion rate is measuring a smaller group than the entering class. The part-time picture is harder: 32% return, against 76% full-time.
Financial Aid
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · grant and loan rates against 10,842 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
Average net price is $12,708 a year after grant aid — low for a four-year institution, though your own figure depends on aid eligibility. Aid is steeply need-based: families in the $0–30k band pay $7,374 while those at $110k+ pay $20,110. About 73% get grants averaging $13,018, so plan on the possibility of paying closer to full price. 43% 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 · 1,931 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 | $7,374 |
| $30–48k | $7,859 |
| $48–75k | $12,136 |
| $75–110k | $20,146 |
| $110k+ | $20,110 |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 4,621 of these 10,842 students, totalling $29,822,384 — an average of $6,454 each.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (Union 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)