The University
of the South
Private College in Sewanee, TN. Six-year graduation rate 80%. Median 10-year earnings $64,911.
Students who entered The University of the South reach a median of $64,911 ten years later, which puts this school in the upper band of undergraduate earnings outcomes. 80% graduate within six years, so most students who start here finish here. Debt at graduation runs to a median of $22,855, neither a bargain nor a burden.
Earnings: College Scorecard, median ten years after entry across students who received federal aid — completers and non-completers alike.
- ✓ Graduation rate 80% — well above the national average
- ✓ 3-year loan default 0.0% — below national benchmark
Admissions
At 57%, the acceptance rate makes The University of the South a school worth applying to with alternatives in hand. 4,703 applications came in, enough to make the rates below reasonably stable year to year. A 18% yield rate is low: the admitted pool is much larger than the entering class. 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 | 640–710 | 81 (17%) |
| SAT Math | 620–680 | |
| ACT Composite | 27–31 | 176 (37%) |
IPEDS Admissions · 2024
Academics
Six-year completion runs to 80% — students who start here overwhelmingly finish here. Retention is strong at 89%, and first-year attrition is where most degrees are lost. A 18% transfer-out rate accounts for part of that gap: those students left for another institution rather than dropping out, and the graduation rate above counts them as non-completers here. The 9:1 student-faculty ratio is small enough that seminar-sized classes are the norm. Judge these figures against other institutions of the same type — sector explains more of the variation in completion than any single campus factor.
Financial Aid
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · grant and loan rates against 1,598 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
Students pay $34,815 a year on average after aid, a premium price that the earnings data has to justify. Net price swings hard on family income here, from $10,485 at the $0–30k band to $38,762 at $110k+. 97% of students get grant aid averaging $37,180, so the published price is a poor guide to what most pay. Federal borrowing reaches 34% 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 · 449 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 | $10,485 |
| $30–48k | $10,704 |
| $48–75k | $17,746 |
| $75–110k | $22,563 |
| $110k+ | $38,762 |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 542 of these 1,598 students, totalling $3,244,012 — an average of $5,985 each.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (Franklin 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)