Tufts University
Private Research University in Medford, MA. Six-year graduation rate 94%. Median 10-year earnings $83,214.
A decade after enrolling, the median Tufts University student earns $83,214 — comfortably above what the typical bachelor's-granting institution returns. 94% graduate within six years, so most students who start here finish here. Graduates carry a median of $16,250 in debt — in line with the national norm. On economic mobility, 2.1% 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 0.20 — healthy (below the 0.40 threshold)
- ✓ Graduation rate 94% — well above the national average
- ✓ 3-year loan default 0.0% — below national benchmark
- ! Admit rate 11% — heavily selective, limited transfer slots
Admissions
Tufts University admits just 11% of applicants, placing it among the most selective undergraduate institutions in the country. With 34,432 applications received, this is a school operating at national scale. Yield is high — 46% of admitted students go on to enroll, well above the typical rate. Read the score bands below narrowly: only 40% 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 | 720–770 | 716 (40%) |
| SAT Math | 750–790 | |
| ACT Composite | 33–35 | 335 (19%) |
IPEDS Admissions · 2024
Apply at Tufts University →Academics
A 94% six-year graduation rate is the strongest academic signal on this page. 95% 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. The undergraduate population is 6,877 — big enough for a real range of programs, small enough to navigate.
Financial Aid
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · grant and loan rates against 6,804 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
Average net price — what students actually pay after grant aid — is $32,367 a year, at the high end of undergraduate cost. The income table below is the number that matters — $11,284 at $0–30k versus $58,570 at $110k+. Grant aid is limited — 41% of students receive any. 19% 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.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · 1,735 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 | $11,284 |
| $30–48k | $9,811 |
| $48–75k | $14,923 |
| $75–110k | $23,311 |
| $110k+ | $58,570 |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 1,297 of these 6,804 students, totalling $6,201,028 — an average of $4,781 each.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (Middlesex 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)