Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

What the IPEDS & College Scorecard Data Shows for Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute operates as a private nonprofit institution located in Troy, New York (city: small), with a total reported enrollment of 5,714 students of which 6,348 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. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute is categorized as “15” under the Carnegie classification system, a meaningful signal when comparing like-to-like institutions.

Selectivity and financial signals give context to what applicants can expect. The reported admission rate is 63.5%, drawn from the most recent IPEDS Fall enrollment survey, with an average SAT of 1,456 and an ACT midpoint of 33. The average net price after grants and scholarships is $36,228, with published in-state tuition of $64,081 and a Pell grant recipient share of 19.9%. Median federal student debt at graduation is $23,750, drawn from the U.S. Treasury-matched College Scorecard file.

Outcomes reveal whether the investment pays back. The 4-year completion rate is 83.4%, and the first-year retention rate is 90.7%. Graduates earn a median of $102,051 ten years after enrolling, compared with $83,054 six years post-enrollment. Within three years of entering repayment, 189900.0% of borrowers are making progress on their federal loans, and 88.7% of graduates earn above the high-school threshold. Treating these numbers as a single snapshot alongside the cost cohort is the standard approach for evaluating ROI under the College Scorecard methodology.