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Private College

Scripps College

Private College in Claremont, CA. Six-year graduation rate 83%. Median 10-year earnings $77,539.

Verdict High-return
Scripps College · Campus
Median earnings · 10 yr
$77,539
Median debt at grad
$13,500
Mobility score
2.5
% bottom→top quintile
Graduation rate
82.5%
Federal loan default
0%

Ten-year median earnings of $77,539 are the headline number here, and they are strong ones. Completion is a strength: 83% of students finish within six years. Graduates leave owing a median of $13,500 — modest by four-year standards. Mobility is where this school separates itself: 2.5% 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.

Green Flags
  • Debt-to-income ratio 0.17 — healthy (below the 0.40 threshold)
  • Graduation rate 83% — well above the national average
  • 3-year loan default 0.0% — below national benchmark
Red Flags

Admissions

Acceptance rate
38%
Applicants
3,199
Yield rate
25.6%

Selectivity is real here: only 38% of applicants are offered a place. 3,199 applications came in, enough to make the rates below reasonably stable year to year. Yield sits at 26% — the remainder of admitted students enroll elsewhere or not at all. The score bands below rest on the 24% 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 720–770 76 (24%)
SAT Math 720–770
ACT Composite 31–34 49 (16%)

IPEDS Admissions · 2024

Apply at Scripps College →

Academics

Full-time retention
94%
Transfer-out rate
0%
Student:faculty
10:1

Six-year completion runs to 83% — students who start here overwhelmingly finish here. 94% of full-time first-years return for a second year — a healthy figure. At 10:1, 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. This is a small school — 1,082 undergraduates — so cohorts are tight and the program list is necessarily short.

Financial Aid

Average net price
$44,396
Full-time, first-time undergraduates paying the in-state rate who were awarded grant or scholarship aid
% receiving grants
58%
degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
% receiving federal loans
17%
degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates

IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · grant and loan rates against 1,077 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates

Net price averages $44,396 annually, so cost is the first thing to weigh here. Net price swings hard on family income here, from $6,948 at the $0–30k band to $54,572 at $110k+. Grant aid reaches 58% of students at an average of $40,654. 17% borrow federally — a low rate, though it covers federal loans only.

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.

% receiving grants
56%
Average grant
$43,168

IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · 275 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 $6,948
$30–48k $4,522
$48–75k $15,831
$75–110k $36,472
$110k+ $54,572

IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24

Federal student loans went to 186 of these 1,077 students, totalling $887,444 — an average of $4,771 each.

IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24

Local housing costs

Typical rents near campus (Los Angeles County) — budget these against any cost-of-attendance housing estimate.

Studio
$1,863/mo
1 bedroom
$2,085/mo
2 bedroom (whole unit)
$2,601/mo

HUD Fair Market Rents (40th-percentile gross rent incl. utilities) · FY2026

Veterans & GI Bill

GI Bill students
10
Yellow Ribbon
Yes
Principles of Excellence
Yes

VA GI Bill Comparison Tool (Veterans Affairs GIDS)

Compare Scripps College with peer institutions

How we evaluate Scripps College

IPEDS
US Department of Education
College Scorecard
Post-grad earnings
Census PSEO
Earnings by major
Opportunity Insights
Mobility by institution
Read our full methodology →