San Francisco
Conservatory of Music
Private College in San Francisco, CA. Six-year graduation rate 74%.
74% graduate within six years, so most students who start here finish here. Median debt at graduation reaches $27,000, heavy enough to shape the years right after the degree.
- ✓ 3-year loan default 0.0% — below national benchmark
Admissions
At 55%, the acceptance rate makes San Francisco Conservatory of Music a school worth applying to with alternatives in hand. The applicant pool is small at 428, which makes year-over-year comparisons unreliable. Yield sits at 27% — 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 San Francisco Conservatory of Music →Academics
Six-year completion runs to 74% — students who start here overwhelmingly finish here. Retention is strong at 93%, and first-year attrition is where most degrees are lost. Retention and graduation track closely, so most of the attrition shows up in the first year rather than after it. The 5:1 student-faculty ratio is small enough that seminar-sized classes are the norm. This is a private nonprofit four-year college, so read every rate on this page against that peer group specifically.
Financial Aid
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · grant and loan rates against 216 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
Students pay $43,746 a year on average after aid, a premium price that the earnings data has to justify. The gap between the $0–30k and $110k+ bands is narrow ($55,704 versus $45,245), meaning aid is not strongly need-weighted. Grant aid is widespread — 100% of students receive it, averaging $33,306. 39% 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 · 55 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 | $55,704 |
| $30–48k | $33,386 |
| $48–75k | $24,504 |
| $75–110k | $36,802 |
| $110k+ | $45,245 |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 85 of these 216 students, totalling $536,292 — an average of $6,309 each.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (San Francisco 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)