University of Rochester
Private Research University in Rochester, NY. Six-year graduation rate 85%. Median 10-year earnings $79,042.
Students who entered University of Rochester reach a median of $79,042 ten years later, which puts this school in the upper band of undergraduate earnings outcomes. Completion is a strength: 85% of students finish within six years. Median debt at graduation is $21,000, roughly typical for an undergraduate degree. On economic mobility, 3.0% 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 0.27 — healthy (below the 0.40 threshold)
- ✓ Graduation rate 85% — well above the national average
- ✓ 3-year loan default 0.0% — below national benchmark
Admissions
Selectivity is real here: only 40% of applicants are offered a place. 21,384 students applied, a pool deep enough to make the acceptance rate meaningful. Yield is low at 15%, so most admitted students do not end up enrolling. The score bands below rest on the 19% 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 | 680–750 | 249 (19%) |
| SAT Math | 730–790 | |
| ACT Composite | 31–34 | 78 (6%) |
IPEDS Admissions · 2024
Apply at University of Rochester →Academics
A 85% six-year graduation rate is the strongest academic signal on this page. Retention is strong at 91%, and first-year attrition is where most degrees are lost. At 9:1, 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. With 6,764 undergraduates, the school sits in the middle of the size distribution.
Financial Aid
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · grant and loan rates against 6,488 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
Students pay $40,462 a year on average after aid, a premium price that the earnings data has to justify. The income table below is the number that matters — $9,678 at $0–30k versus $46,801 at $110k+. 70% of students receive grant aid, averaging $42,046 — common but not automatic. 41% 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 · 1,543 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 | $9,678 |
| $30–48k | $12,185 |
| $48–75k | $21,087 |
| $75–110k | $27,883 |
| $110k+ | $46,801 |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 2,688 of these 6,488 students, totalling $11,389,543 — an average of $4,237 each.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (Monroe 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)