Lewis &
Clark College
Private College in Portland, OR. Six-year graduation rate 75%. Median 10-year earnings $62,205.
Ten-year median earnings of $62,205 are the headline number here, and they are strong ones. 75% graduate within six years, so most students who start here finish here. Graduates carry a median of $19,500 in debt — in line with the national norm.
Earnings: College Scorecard, median ten years after entry across students who received federal aid — completers and non-completers alike.
- ✓ Debt-to-income ratio 0.31 — healthy (below the 0.40 threshold)
- ✓ Graduation rate 75% — well above the national average
- ✓ 3-year loan default 0.0% — below national benchmark
Admissions
78% of applicants get in, so the odds favor most reasonably prepared students. The applicant pool runs to 6,328, typical for a school of this reach. A 10% 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 Lewis & Clark College →Academics
Six-year completion runs to 75% — students who start here overwhelmingly finish here. Retention is strong at 89%, and first-year attrition is where most degrees are lost. Retention and graduation track closely, so most of the attrition shows up in the first year rather than after it. 21% transfer out. IPEDS does not follow them, so whether they finished elsewhere is not recorded either way. At 12:1, 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 2,167 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
Students pay $37,999 a year on average after aid, a premium price that the earnings data has to justify. Aid is steeply need-based: families in the $0–30k band pay $15,962 while those at $110k+ pay $44,990. Most students get help: 99% receive grants worth $41,721 on average. Most students borrow — 67% 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 · 553 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 | $15,962 |
| $30–48k | $18,362 |
| $48–75k | $22,712 |
| $75–110k | $25,917 |
| $110k+ | $44,990 |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 1,445 of these 2,167 students, totalling $9,390,434 — an average of $6,499 each.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (Multnomah 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)