Pacific Northwest
College of Art
Private College in Portland, OR. Six-year graduation rate 29%. Median 10-year earnings $34,883.
Median earnings ten years after entry come to $34,883, below what most undergraduate institutions return — the central fact to weigh against cost here. Only 29% finish within six years, so roughly three in four students leave without the credential they enrolled for. Graduates carry a median of $25,000 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 0.72 — elevated (above 0.60)
- ! Graduation rate 29% — below national average
Admissions
Pacific Northwest College of Art accepts 75% of applicants, which makes it accessible to most students who meet the baseline requirements. The applicant pool is small at 485, which makes year-over-year comparisons unreliable. Yield sits at 28% — the remainder of admitted students enroll elsewhere or not at all.
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 Pacific Northwest College of Art →Academics
Completion is the problem here: 29% graduate within six years. Retention of 69% 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. At 9:1, students get materially more instructor contact than at a typical public university. Judge these figures against other institutions of the same type — sector explains more of the variation in completion than any single campus factor.
Financial Aid
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · grant and loan rates against 412 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
Average net price — what students actually pay after grant aid — is $39,710 a year, at the high end of undergraduate cost. The income table below is the number that matters — $28,219 at $0–30k versus $44,522 at $110k+. Grant aid is widespread — 98% of students receive it, averaging $28,394. 52% 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 · 118 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 | $28,219 |
| $30–48k | $30,517 |
| $48–75k | $30,916 |
| $75–110k | $36,998 |
| $110k+ | $44,522 |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 215 of these 412 students, totalling $1,437,038 — an average of $6,684 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