10-yr median earnings
$44,358
Federal aid recipients only
Public · Alva, Oklahoma
Northwestern Oklahoma State University is a public institution in Alva, Oklahoma. Graduates earn a median of $44,358 ten years after enrollment at an average net price of $10,104/yr.
The verdict
Northwestern Oklahoma State University pairs above-median graduate earnings with a moderately open admit.
According to the U.S. Department of Education's College Scorecard.
Northwestern Oklahoma State University is a public institution in Alva, Oklahoma enrolling 1,498 students, according to the U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard's 2024-25 release. The acceptance rate is 65.5% with an average SAT of 1,003. Graduates earn a median of $44,358 ten years after enrollment, based on U.S. Treasury tax records linked to federal financial aid data. The average net price after financial aid is $10,104. This profile includes admissions data, graduation rates, program-level earnings, and cost breakdowns to help students compare colleges using official federal data.
Data updated July 2026
Northwestern Oklahoma State University operates as a public institution located in Alva, Oklahoma (town: remote), with a total reported enrollment of 1,498 students of which 2,045 are undergraduates. Institution-level records in the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) classify each school by Carnegie category, ownership sector, and urban/rural locale, which is how this profile's peer group and cost cohort are determined; Northwestern Oklahoma State University is categorized as "Master's Colleges & Universities: Small Programs" under the Carnegie classification system, a meaningful signal when comparing like-to-like institutions.
Admissions and cost figures below come from the same annual IPEDS Fall enrollment survey and net-price calculation that every Title IV institution is legally required to submit to the federal government, so the same standardized methodology applies whether comparing a public flagship or a small private college. Net price nets grant and scholarship aid out of the published sticker price, the number financial-aid experts consider the honest comparison point - the table further down breaks that figure out by family income band rather than a single blended average, since what one family actually pays can look very different from what another family pays at the identical school.
The outcomes further down come from federal tax records the U.S. Treasury links to former students who received federal financial aid, not a self-reported alumni survey - an approach that removes response bias but also means graduates who never took federal aid are absent from the earnings figures. Completion and retention rates only count first-time, full-time degree-seeking students, so a school with a large transfer or part-time population can serve those students well without that showing up in these particular metrics. Reading the cost, completion, and earnings figures together, rather than any single one in isolation, is the approach the College Scorecard's own methodology recommends for judging return on investment.
A 6-metric composite of earnings, cost, and completion outcomes benchmarked against every reporting US college, not a ranking of teaching quality, campus life, or fit for any individual student. See the full methodology.
Each axis is the percentile score shown in the breakdown at left; the shape shows this school's overall profile at a glance.
10-yr median earnings
$44,358
Federal aid recipients only
Avg net price
$10,104
After grants and scholarships
4-yr completion
32.7%
First-time, full-time bachelor's
Higher is better
Each dot is a college plotted by 10-year median earnings (x-axis) vs average net price (y-axis), colored by 4-year graduation rate. Top-left = best ROI; bottom-right = avoid.
Where this school's graduate earnings fall within the full national distribution of every US college that reports to the College Scorecard, not just its peer set.
Northwestern Oklahoma State University: graduate earnings vs. every US college
10-year median earnings, College Scorecard
$44,358 Top 34% higher than 66% of 5,103 US colleges
Each bar is a $20K-wide band; taller bars hold more US colleges. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.
Source U.S. Department of Education, College Scorecard · 2024
| Admission Rate | 65.5% |
| SAT Average | 1,003 |
| SAT Math (25th-75th) | 383 – 518 |
| SAT Reading (25th-75th) | 420 – 518 |
| ACT Average | 20 |
| ACT (25th-75th) | 16 – 21 |
| In-State Tuition | $5,970 |
| Out-of-State Tuition | $11,664 |
| Average Net Price | $10,104 |
| $0 – $30,000 | $6,439 |
| $30,001 – $48,000 | $7,828 |
| $48,001 – $75,000 | $10,539 |
| Over $110,000 | $16,065 |
Median earnings of program completers, College Scorecard field-of-study file
Registered Nursing, Nursing Administration, Nursing Research and Clinical Nursing
$85,283 median earnings
Criminal Justice and Corrections
$59,355 median earnings
Business Administration, Management and Operations
$58,292 median earnings
Teacher Education and Professional Development, Specific Levels and Methods
$56,977 median earnings
Teacher Education and Professional Development, Specific Subject Areas
$50,705 median earnings
Agricultural Business and Management
$49,666 median earnings
Liberal Arts and Sciences, General Studies and Humanities
$44,123 median earnings
Business Administration, Management and Operations
$43,590 median earnings
What this shows The highest-earning programs at a school are not necessarily its most popular ones - a small specialized program can post strong median earnings without reflecting the outcome most students here actually see.
Analyze the financial return of a degree
Which fields of study pay off fastest
Schools where graduates earn the most vs. cost
A data-driven framework for picking schools
How College Scorecard measures outcomes
Compare costs, outcomes, and career paths
Other public institutions in Oklahoma
According to the U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard's 2024-25 release, PlainCollege tracks 6,243 postsecondary institutions and 70,827 individual school-and-program earnings records nationwide.
Every figure on this page is read live from official U.S. federal datasets, as of the 2024-25 release. Read the full methodology for how the data is sourced, computed, and verified.
What this means for Northwestern Oklahoma State University
This profile is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial or admissions advice. Figures are historical averages and may not predict an individual student's outcome - confirm current details directly with the institution before making enrollment decisions.
Every figure on PlainCollege is rendered directly from the U.S. Department of Education's College Scorecard data, no number is typed in by an editor. Institution profiles are compiled directly from College Scorecard, IPEDS, and Treasury earnings-linkage data, no figure is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of 2024-25.