Santa Clara University
Private College in Santa Clara, CA. Six-year graduation rate 88%. Median 10-year earnings $109,183.
Ten-year median earnings of $109,183 are the headline number here, and they are strong ones. The six-year graduation rate of 88% is well above average and the clearest sign this school holds onto its students. Graduates carry a median of $19,162 in debt — in line with the national norm. On economic mobility, 2.2% of students travel 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 0.18 — healthy (below the 0.40 threshold)
- ✓ Graduation rate 88% — well above the national average
- ✓ 3-year loan default 0.0% — below national benchmark
Admissions
Selectivity is real here: only 48% of applicants are offered a place. With 18,970 applications received, this is a school operating at national scale. Only 18% of admitted students enroll — the great majority of admits go elsewhere or nowhere. Read the score bands below narrowly: only 24% 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 | 670–730 | 385 (24%) |
| SAT Math | 680–760 | |
| ACT Composite | 31–33 | 154 (10%) |
IPEDS Admissions · 2024
Apply at Santa Clara University →Academics
88% of students finish within six years, putting completion well above the national norm. 94% of full-time first-years return for a second year — a healthy figure. At 11:1, students get materially more instructor contact than at a typical public university. This is a private nonprofit four-year college, so read every rate on this page against that peer group specifically. With 6,249 undergraduates, the school sits in the middle of the size distribution.
Financial Aid
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · grant and loan rates against 6,235 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
Average net price — what students actually pay after grant aid — is $53,883 a year, at the high end of undergraduate cost. The income table below is the number that matters — $22,985 at $0–30k versus $60,678 at $110k+. Grant aid reaches 72% of students at an average of $27,292. Federal borrowing reaches 37% of students.
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 · 1,548 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 | $22,985 |
| $30–48k | $19,154 |
| $48–75k | $26,531 |
| $75–110k | $37,219 |
| $110k+ | $60,678 |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 2,338 of these 6,235 students, totalling $27,885,575 — an average of $11,927 each.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (Santa Clara 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)