Lake Superior
State University
Public College in Sault Ste Marie, MI. Six-year graduation rate 53%. Median 10-year earnings $49,045.
Students who entered Lake Superior State University land at a median of $49,045 a decade later, close to what most four-year schools deliver. Six-year completion sits at 53%, near the national average for undergraduate institutions. Debt at graduation runs to a median of $23,250, neither a bargain nor a burden.
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
Lake Superior State University accepts 68% of applicants, which makes it accessible to most students who meet the baseline requirements. 2,473 applications came in, enough to make the rates below reasonably stable year to year. A 15% yield rate is low: the admitted pool is much larger than the entering class.
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 | — | — |
| SAT Math | — | |
| ACT Composite | — | — |
IPEDS Admissions · 2024
Apply at Lake Superior State University →Academics
Completion is middling: 53% finish inside six years. 79% of full-time first-years come back for year two, so about one in five are gone before sophomore year. 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. A 26% 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 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 1,391 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
Students pay an average of $12,339 annually, well below typical undergraduate net price. The income table below is the number that matters — $3,516 at $0–30k versus $20,321 at $110k+. Grant aid reaches 81% of students at an average of $11,254. 44% 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 · 248 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 | $3,516 |
| $30–48k | $9,226 |
| $48–75k | $10,422 |
| $75–110k | $14,541 |
| $110k+ | $20,321 |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 618 of these 1,391 students, totalling $4,099,124 — an average of $6,633 each.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (Chippewa 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)