Simmons University
Private College in Boston, MA. Six-year graduation rate 72%. Median 10-year earnings $63,494.
Ten-year median earnings of $63,494 are the headline number here, and they are strong ones. 72% graduate within six years, so most students who start here finish here. Median debt at graduation is $24,840, roughly typical for an undergraduate degree. On economic mobility, 2.3% 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.
- ✓ 3-year loan default 0.0% — below national benchmark
Admissions
An acceptance rate of 70% puts Simmons University on the accessible end — a realistic target for a broad range of applicants. 4,773 applications came in, enough to make the rates below reasonably stable year to year. Only 11% of admitted students enroll — the great majority of admits go elsewhere or nowhere. 17% of enrolled first-years submitted an SAT score. The bands below describe the middle half of that group, not of the class.
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 | 620–700 | 60 (17%) |
| SAT Math | 600–690 | |
| ACT Composite | 26–34 | 10 (3%) |
IPEDS Admissions · 2024
Apply at Simmons University →Academics
72% of students finish within six years, putting completion well above the national norm. Retention is strong at 85%, and first-year attrition is where most degrees are lost. The two rates sit near each other: few students who return for a second year are missing from the six-year completion figure. 23% transfer out. IPEDS does not follow them, so whether they finished elsewhere is not recorded either way. A 9:1 ratio points to small classes and accessible faculty.
Financial Aid
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · grant and loan rates against 1,750 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
Students pay $28,691 a year on average after aid, a premium price that the earnings data has to justify. Aid is steeply need-based: families in the $0–30k band pay $18,027 while those at $110k+ pay $32,777. 93% of students get grant aid averaging $33,818, so the published price is a poor guide to what most pay. 64% of students borrow federally, so debt is the norm rather than the exception.
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 · 362 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 | $18,027 |
| $30–48k | $15,810 |
| $48–75k | $22,139 |
| $75–110k | $24,714 |
| $110k+ | $32,777 |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 1,116 of these 1,750 students, totalling $7,479,521 — an average of $6,702 each.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (Suffolk 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)