Salisbury University
Public College in Salisbury, MD. Six-year graduation rate 68%. Median 10-year earnings $61,515.
Ten-year median earnings of $61,515 are the headline number here, and they are strong ones. Completion is a strength: 68% of students finish within six years. Debt at graduation runs to a median of $21,000, neither a bargain nor a burden.
Earnings: College Scorecard, median ten years after entry across students who received federal aid — completers and non-completers alike.
- ✓ Debt-to-income ratio 0.34 — healthy (below the 0.40 threshold)
- ✓ 3-year loan default 0.0% — below national benchmark
Admissions
Admission is not the constraint here: 87% of applicants are accepted. 8,845 students applied in the most recent cycle — a mid-sized pool drawn mostly from the surrounding region. A 18% yield rate is low: the admitted pool is much larger than the entering class. The score bands below rest on the 11% of enrolled first-years who submitted an SAT score — a self-selected group, and not a cutoff.
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 | 600–670 | 157 (11%) |
| SAT Math | 580–650 | |
| ACT Composite | 20–29 | 8 (1%) |
IPEDS Admissions · 2024
Apply at Salisbury University →Academics
A 68% six-year graduation rate is the strongest academic signal on this page. Retention of 78% means a meaningful slice of each entering class does not return. Transfer-out runs to 22% — common enough at this school that the completion rate is measuring a smaller group than the entering class. A 14:1 ratio points to small classes and accessible faculty. As a public four-year university, the relevant comparison is other four-year schools rather than the national average across all institutions.
Financial Aid
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · grant and loan rates against 6,056 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
Students pay an average of $18,760 annually once grants are applied. The income table below is the number that matters — $6,743 at $0–30k versus $22,759 at $110k+. About 78% get grants averaging $8,546, so plan on the possibility of paying closer to full price. 40% 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 · 1,374 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 | $6,743 |
| $30–48k | $9,915 |
| $48–75k | $12,909 |
| $75–110k | $16,669 |
| $110k+ | $22,759 |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 2,445 of these 6,056 students, totalling $15,196,914 — an average of $6,216 each.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (Wicomico 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)