Mercer University
Private Research University in Macon, GA. Six-year graduation rate 70%. Median 10-year earnings $58,354.
Ten years after entry, the median Mercer University student earns $58,354 — a solidly middle-of-the-pack result for an undergraduate institution. Completion is a strength: 70% of students finish within six years. Debt at graduation runs to a median of $24,199, neither a bargain nor a burden. It also moves people — 2.1% of students climb from the bottom fifth of the income distribution 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
Mercer University accepts 69% of applicants, which makes it accessible to most students who meet the baseline requirements. The applicant pool runs to 9,813, typical for a school of this reach. A 13% yield rate is low: the admitted pool is much larger than the entering class. Read the score bands below narrowly: only 40% 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 | 590–680 | 341 (40%) |
| SAT Math | 570–670 | |
| ACT Composite | 25–31 | 148 (17%) |
IPEDS Admissions · 2024
Apply at Mercer University →Academics
A 70% six-year graduation rate is the strongest academic signal on this page. First-year retention of 82% shows the cohort holds together through the hardest year. The two rates sit near each other: few students who return for a second year are missing from the six-year completion figure. 16% transfer out. IPEDS does not follow them, so whether they finished elsewhere is not recorded either way. The part-time picture is harder: 56% return, against 82% full-time.
Financial Aid
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · grant and loan rates against 4,620 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
Students pay an average of $24,364 annually once grants are applied. Net price varies modestly by income — $19,817 at $0–30k against $26,770 at $110k+ — so the average is a fair guide for most families. 97% of students get grant aid averaging $26,075, so the published price is a poor guide to what most pay. Most students borrow — 63% 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 · 1,014 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 | $19,817 |
| $30–48k | $21,484 |
| $48–75k | $22,533 |
| $75–110k | $25,184 |
| $110k+ | $26,770 |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 2,919 of these 4,620 students, totalling $21,980,950 — an average of $7,530 each.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (Bibb 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)