Sul Ross
State University
Public College in Alpine, TX. Six-year graduation rate 30%. Median 10-year earnings $41,871.
Median earnings ten years after entry come to $41,871, below what most undergraduate institutions return — the central fact to weigh against cost here. Completion is the weak point: 30% graduate within six years. Median debt at graduation is $15,900, a light load against those earnings. Mobility is where this school separates itself: 5.2% 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.
- ✓ 3-year loan default 0.0% — below national benchmark
- ! Graduation rate 30% — below national average
Admissions
With an acceptance rate of 99%, Sul Ross State University takes nearly everyone who applies. Only 1,159 students applied, so treat these rates as directional — small pools swing sharply between cycles. Only 18% of admitted students enroll — the great majority of admits go elsewhere or nowhere. The score bands below rest on the 15% 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 | 470–550 | 31 (15%) |
| SAT Math | 460–560 | |
| ACT Composite | 15–24 | 11 (5%) |
IPEDS Admissions · 2024
Apply at Sul Ross State University →Academics
Completion is the problem here: 30% graduate within six years. Just 45% of first-years come back — most of the completion gap opens in year one. The two rates sit near each other: few students who return for a second year are missing from the six-year completion figure. Transfer-out runs to 30% — common enough at this school that the completion rate is measuring a smaller group than the entering class. At 11:1, students get materially more instructor contact than at a typical public university.
Financial Aid
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · grant and loan rates against 1,436 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
At $14,454 a year on average after grant aid, cost is low here relative to most undergraduate institutions. Aid is steeply need-based: families in the $0–30k band pay $11,110 while those at $110k+ pay $20,279. Grant aid reaches 73% of students at an average of $8,179. About 41% borrow federally, roughly the national pattern.
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 · 216 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 | $11,110 |
| $30–48k | $11,722 |
| $48–75k | $11,261 |
| $75–110k | $18,596 |
| $110k+ | $20,279 |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 584 of these 1,436 students, totalling $3,646,541 — an average of $6,244 each.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (Brewster 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)