Old Dominion University
Public Research University in Norfolk, VA. Six-year graduation rate 46%. Median 10-year earnings $54,914.
The median ten-year earnings figure of $54,914 sits near the national middle rather than at either extreme. 46% finish within six years — respectable, though a meaningful share still leave without a credential. Debt at graduation runs to a median of $24,000, neither a bargain nor a burden. Mobility is where this school separates itself: 2.4% of students move 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
Old Dominion University admits 90% of applicants — effectively open admission, so the application is a formality rather than a hurdle. With 15,100 applications received, this is a school operating at national scale. Only 20% of admitted students enroll — the great majority of admits go elsewhere or nowhere. Read the score bands below narrowly: only 13% 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 | 570–650 | 365 (13%) |
| SAT Math | 530–630 | |
| ACT Composite | 24–29 | 47 (2%) |
IPEDS Admissions · 2024
Apply at Old Dominion University →Academics
Completion is middling: 46% finish inside six years. Retention of 77% means a meaningful slice of each entering class does not return. That gap between coming back and finishing is where this school loses people — after the first year, not during it. A 25% 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 part-time picture is harder: 51% return, against 77% full-time.
Financial Aid
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · grant and loan rates against 17,521 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
Average net price after grant aid is $16,419 a year — mid-range for a four-year institution. Aid is steeply need-based: families in the $0–30k band pay $9,739 while those at $110k+ pay $23,567. Grant aid reaches 65% of students at an average of $12,162. 41% 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 · 2,672 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 | $9,739 |
| $30–48k | $10,114 |
| $48–75k | $13,123 |
| $75–110k | $16,940 |
| $110k+ | $23,567 |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 7,193 of these 17,521 students, totalling $48,752,753 — an average of $6,778 each.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (Norfolk City) — 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)