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Private College

University of Portland

Private College in Portland, OR. Six-year graduation rate 80%. Median 10-year earnings $82,804.

Verdict High-return
University of Portland · Campus
Median earnings · 10 yr
$82,804
Median debt at grad
$21,370
Mobility score
0.9
% bottom→top quintile
Graduation rate
79.8%
Federal loan default
0%

Students who entered University of Portland reach a median of $82,804 ten years later, which puts this school in the upper band of undergraduate earnings outcomes. Completion is a strength: 80% of students finish within six years. Debt at graduation runs to a median of $21,370, 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.

Green Flags
  • Debt-to-income ratio 0.26 — healthy (below the 0.40 threshold)
  • Graduation rate 80% — well above the national average
  • 3-year loan default 0.0% — below national benchmark
Red Flags
  • ! Mobility score 0.9 — limited economic uplift documented

Admissions

Acceptance rate
89%
Applicants
8,289
Yield rate
9.6%

Admission is not the constraint here: 89% of applicants are accepted. 8,289 applications came in, enough to make the rates below reasonably stable year to year. Only 10% of admitted students enroll — the great majority of admits go elsewhere or nowhere. The score bands below rest on the 6% 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 580–670 42 (6%)
SAT Math 580–700
ACT Composite 25–31 21 (3%)

IPEDS Admissions · 2024

Apply at University of Portland →

Academics

Full-time retention
88%
Transfer-out rate
17%
Student:faculty
9:1

80% of students finish within six years, putting completion well above the national norm. Retention is strong at 88%, and first-year attrition is where most degrees are lost. Transfer-out runs to 17% — common enough at this school that the completion rate is measuring a smaller group than the entering class. 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

Average net price
$30,985
Full-time, first-time undergraduates paying the in-state rate who were awarded grant or scholarship aid
% receiving grants
98%
degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
% receiving federal loans
39%
degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates

IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · grant and loan rates against 3,104 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates

Average net price — what students actually pay after grant aid — is $30,985 a year, at the high end of undergraduate cost. Net price swings hard on family income here, from $20,070 at the $0–30k band to $37,284 at $110k+. Most students get help: 98% receive grants worth $37,812 on average. 39% 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.

% receiving grants
100%
Average grant
$42,538

IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · 728 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 $20,070
$30–48k $16,577
$48–75k $23,858
$75–110k $27,021
$110k+ $37,284

IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24

Federal student loans went to 1,211 of these 3,104 students, totalling $7,764,407 — an average of $6,412 each.

IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24

Local housing costs

Typical rents near campus (Multnomah County) — budget these against any cost-of-attendance housing estimate.

Studio
$1,570/mo
1 bedroom
$1,677/mo
2 bedroom (whole unit)
$1,922/mo

HUD Fair Market Rents (40th-percentile gross rent incl. utilities) · FY2026

Veterans & GI Bill

GI Bill students
96
Yellow Ribbon
Yes
Principles of Excellence
Yes

VA GI Bill Comparison Tool (Veterans Affairs GIDS)

Compare University of Portland with peer institutions

How we evaluate University of Portland

IPEDS
US Department of Education
College Scorecard
Post-grad earnings
Census PSEO
Earnings by major
Opportunity Insights
Mobility by institution
Read our full methodology →