St Olaf College

What the IPEDS & College Scorecard Data Shows for St Olaf College

St Olaf College operates as a private nonprofit institution located in Northfield, Minnesota (town: distant), with a total reported enrollment of 3,093 students of which 3,138 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. St Olaf College is categorized as “21” 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 48.3%, drawn from the most recent IPEDS Fall enrollment survey, with an average SAT of 1,380 and an ACT midpoint of 31. The average net price after grants and scholarships is $23,874, with published in-state tuition of $59,760 and a Pell grant recipient share of 21.2%. Median federal student debt at graduation is $26,000, drawn from the U.S. Treasury-matched College Scorecard file.

Outcomes reveal whether the investment pays back. The 4-year completion rate is 83.8%, and the first-year retention rate is 92.2%. Graduates earn a median of $65,543 ten years after enrolling, compared with $48,373 six years post-enrollment. Within three years of entering repayment, 89900.0% of borrowers are making progress on their federal loans, and 71.4% 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.