Wheaton College
Private College in Wheaton, IL. Six-year graduation rate 85%. Median 10-year earnings $63,756.
Students who entered Wheaton College reach a median of $63,756 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. Debt at graduation runs to a median of $23,250, 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 85% — well above the national average
- ✓ 3-year loan default 0.0% — below national benchmark
Admissions
With an acceptance rate of 87%, Wheaton College takes nearly everyone who applies. 2,040 students applied in the most recent cycle — a mid-sized pool drawn mostly from the surrounding region. About 30% of admitted students enroll, a yield in the normal range. Read the score bands below narrowly: only 38% 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 | 650–740 | 202 (38%) |
| SAT Math | 610–730 | |
| ACT Composite | 28–32 | 105 (20%) |
IPEDS Admissions · 2024
Apply at Wheaton College →Academics
A 85% six-year graduation rate is the strongest academic signal on this page. 93% of full-time first-years return for a second year — a healthy figure. A 10:1 ratio points to small classes and accessible faculty. Judge these figures against other institutions of the same type — sector explains more of the variation in completion than any single campus factor. 2,119 undergraduates makes this a mid-sized institution.
Financial Aid
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · grant and loan rates against 2,087 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
Students pay $31,356 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 — $20,001 at $0–30k versus $33,435 at $110k+. 93% of students get grant aid averaging $24,496, so the published price is a poor guide to what most pay. 44% 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 · 553 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 | $20,001 |
| $30–48k | $18,587 |
| $48–75k | $20,553 |
| $75–110k | $24,176 |
| $110k+ | $33,435 |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 918 of these 2,087 students, totalling $5,789,946 — an average of $6,307 each.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (DuPage 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)