Pace University
Private College in New York, NY. Six-year graduation rate 60%. Median 10-year earnings $70,378.
A decade after enrolling, the median Pace University student earns $70,378 — comfortably above what the typical bachelor's-granting institution returns. The six-year graduation rate is 60%, meaning about two in five students who start do not finish. Median debt at graduation is $23,250, roughly typical for an undergraduate degree. Mobility is where this school separates itself: 8.4% 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.
- ✓ Debt-to-income ratio 0.33 — healthy (below the 0.40 threshold)
- ✓ Mobility score 8.4 — top quartile among US colleges
- ✓ 3-year loan default 0.0% — below national benchmark
Admissions
An acceptance rate of 76% puts Pace University on the accessible end — a realistic target for a broad range of applicants. With 30,030 applications received, this is a school operating at national scale. Yield is low at 8%, so most admitted students do not end up enrolling. 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 | 600–680 | 247 (13%) |
| SAT Math | 580–660 | |
| ACT Composite | 24–29 | 56 (3%) |
IPEDS Admissions · 2024
Apply at Pace University →Academics
Completion is middling: 60% finish inside six years. 75% of full-time first-years come back for year two, so about one in four are gone before sophomore year. Retention and graduation track closely, so most of the attrition shows up in the first year rather than after it. Transfer-out runs to 27% — common enough at this school that the completion rate is measuring a smaller group than the entering class. The part-time picture is harder: 26% return, against 75% full-time.
Financial Aid
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · grant and loan rates against 7,725 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
Students pay $34,791 a year on average after aid, a premium price that the earnings data has to justify. The income table below is the number that matters — $26,473 at $0–30k versus $36,430 at $110k+. 93% of students get grant aid averaging $32,009, so the published price is a poor guide to what most pay. About 48% borrow federally, roughly the national pattern.
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 · 1,930 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 | $26,473 |
| $30–48k | $26,362 |
| $48–75k | $28,467 |
| $75–110k | $31,219 |
| $110k+ | $36,430 |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 3,673 of these 7,725 students, totalling $23,585,333 — an average of $6,421 each.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (New York 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)