University of Houston-Downtown
Public College in Houston, TX. Six-year graduation rate 33%. Median 10-year earnings $53,551.
Students who entered University of Houston-Downtown land at a median of $53,551 a decade later, close to what most four-year schools deliver. Only 33% finish within six years, so roughly two in three students leave without the credential they enrolled for. Debt at graduation runs to a median of $18,750, 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.
- ✓ 3-year loan default 0.0% — below national benchmark
- ! Graduation rate 33% — below national average
Admissions
Admission is not the constraint here: 90% of applicants are accepted. 6,551 applications came in, enough to make the rates below reasonably stable year to year. About 20% of admitted students enroll, a yield in the normal range. Read the score bands below narrowly: only 41% 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 | 480–560 | 487 (41%) |
| SAT Math | 460–550 | |
| ACT Composite | 16–22 | 45 (4%) |
IPEDS Admissions · 2024
Apply at University of Houston-Downtown →Academics
A six-year graduation rate of 33% means finishing is closer to the exception than the rule. Retention of 67% means a meaningful slice of each entering class does not return. That gap between coming back and finishing is where this school loses people — after the first year, not during it. Transfer-out runs to 30% — common enough at this school that the completion rate is measuring a smaller group than the entering class. Retention drops to 56% for part-time students, a gap worth weighing if full-time study is not realistic.
Financial Aid
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · grant and loan rates against 12,823 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
At $10,832 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 $9,439 while those at $110k+ pay $19,380. Grant aid reaches 79% of students at an average of $6,570. 30% of students take federal loans, a middling borrowing rate.
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 · 1,343 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 | $9,439 |
| $30–48k | $10,048 |
| $48–75k | $11,247 |
| $75–110k | $15,488 |
| $110k+ | $19,380 |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 3,848 of these 12,823 students, totalling $30,532,521 — an average of $7,935 each.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (Harris 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)