William Paterson
University of New Jersey
Public College in Wayne, NJ. Six-year graduation rate 44%. Median 10-year earnings $57,780.
The median ten-year earnings figure of $57,780 sits near the national middle rather than at either extreme. Six-year completion sits at 44%, near the national average for undergraduate institutions. Debt at graduation runs to a median of $22,334, neither a bargain nor a burden. It also moves people — 2.8% of students climb from the bottom fifth of the income distribution to the top.
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
Admissions
William Paterson University of New Jersey admits 90% of applicants — effectively open admission, so the application is a formality rather than a hurdle. 9,165 applications came in, enough to make the rates below reasonably stable year to year. A 13% yield rate is low: the admitted pool is much larger than the entering class.
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 | — | 2 |
| SAT Math | — | |
| ACT Composite | — | — |
IPEDS Admissions · 2024
Apply at William Paterson University of New Jersey →Academics
Completion is middling: 44% finish inside six years. First-year retention is 74% — the single largest point of attrition on this campus. The distance between those two figures is the part worth noticing — students return for a second year at a much higher rate than they graduate, so attrition here is spread across the middle years rather than concentrated in the first. Transfer-out runs to 28% — common enough at this school that the completion rate is measuring a smaller group than the entering class. At 18:1, class sizes land in the normal range for an undergraduate institution.
Financial Aid
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · grant and loan rates against 6,489 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
Students pay an average of $13,509 annually, well below typical undergraduate net price. Aid is steeply need-based: families in the $0–30k band pay $16,171 while those at $110k+ pay $24,917. Grant aid reaches 69% of students at an average of $10,232. About 43% borrow federally, roughly the national pattern.
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 · 875 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 | $16,171 |
| $30–48k | $18,287 |
| $48–75k | $18,505 |
| $75–110k | $22,862 |
| $110k+ | $24,917 |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 2,805 of these 6,489 students, totalling $18,562,477 — an average of $6,618 each.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (Passaic 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)