Wisconsin Lutheran College
Private College in Milwaukee, WI. Six-year graduation rate 64%. Median 10-year earnings $54,664.
Students who entered Wisconsin Lutheran College land at a median of $54,664 a decade later, close to what most four-year schools deliver. The six-year graduation rate is 64%, meaning about one in three students who start do not finish. Median debt at graduation is $26,000, roughly typical for an undergraduate degree.
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
- ! Mobility score 0.6 — limited economic uplift documented
Admissions
An acceptance rate of 78% puts Wisconsin Lutheran College on the accessible end — a realistic target for a broad range of applicants. 1,575 students applied in the most recent cycle — a mid-sized pool drawn mostly from the surrounding region. Yield sits at 20% — the remainder of admitted students enroll elsewhere or not at all. 2% of enrolled first-years submitted an SAT score. The bands below describe the middle half of that group, not of the 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 | 530–640 | 6 (2%) |
| SAT Math | 440–590 | |
| ACT Composite | 23–29 | 79 (32%) |
IPEDS Admissions · 2024
Apply at Wisconsin Lutheran College →Academics
Completion is middling: 64% finish inside six years. Retention of 73% means a meaningful slice of each entering class does not return. A 27% transfer-out rate accounts for part of that gap: those students left for another institution rather than dropping out, and the graduation rate above counts them as non-completers here. At 11:1, 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.
Financial Aid
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · grant and loan rates against 1,009 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
Students pay an average of $24,095 annually once grants are applied. The income table below is the number that matters — $18,190 at $0–30k versus $28,019 at $110k+. Most students get help: 98% receive grants worth $31,329 on average. 68% of students borrow federally, so debt is the norm rather than the exception.
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 · 251 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 | $18,190 |
| $30–48k | $15,913 |
| $48–75k | $20,519 |
| $75–110k | $20,475 |
| $110k+ | $28,019 |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 691 of these 1,009 students, totalling $5,984,355 — an average of $8,660 each.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (Milwaukee 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)