Lake Forest College
Private College in Lake Forest, IL. Six-year graduation rate 78%. Median 10-year earnings $61,825.
Ten-year median earnings of $61,825 are the headline number here, and they are strong ones. The six-year graduation rate of 78% is well above average and the clearest sign this school holds onto its students. Median debt at graduation is $26,158, 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.
- ✓ Graduation rate 78% — well above the national average
- ✓ 3-year loan default 0.0% — below national benchmark
Admissions
At 57%, the acceptance rate makes Lake Forest College a school worth applying to with alternatives in hand. 5,356 applications came in, enough to make the rates below reasonably stable year to year. Yield is low at 14%, so most admitted students do not end up enrolling. Read the score bands below narrowly: only 16% 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 | 600–713 | 67 (16%) |
| SAT Math | 590–680 | |
| ACT Composite | 28–32 | 41 (10%) |
IPEDS Admissions · 2024
Apply at Lake Forest College →Academics
A 78% six-year graduation rate is the strongest academic signal on this page. Retention is strong at 90%, and first-year attrition is where most degrees are lost. The two rates sit near each other: few students who return for a second year are missing from the six-year completion figure. A 16% 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. The 13:1 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 1,796 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
Average net price — what students actually pay after grant aid — is $31,225 a year, at the high end of undergraduate cost. Net price swings hard on family income here, from $19,605 at the $0–30k band to $35,341 at $110k+. 99% of students get grant aid averaging $49,998, so the published price is a poor guide to what most pay. 67% 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 · 425 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 | $19,605 |
| $30–48k | $20,210 |
| $48–75k | $21,481 |
| $75–110k | $26,055 |
| $110k+ | $35,341 |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 1,195 of these 1,796 students, totalling $8,252,564 — an average of $6,906 each.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (Lake 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)