A private R1 research university in New Haven, CT, admitting 3.87% of applicants with median graduate earnings of $100,533.
New Haven, Connecticut
Yale University is a private R1 research university in New Haven, Connecticut, founded in 1701 as the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States. It enrolls 6,758 undergraduates and 8,750 graduate students across 14 residential colleges and a broad range of graduate and professional schools. Yale's undergraduate degree distribution is among the most humanities-oriented of any Ivy League university: social sciences, humanities, and biological sciences together account for the largest share of degrees.
Yale holds a Doctoral University: Very High Research Activity (R1) Carnegie classification and is accredited through the New England Commission of Higher Education (NECHE). Yale Law School, Yale School of Drama, and the Yale School of Music are consistently ranked among the most selective professional programs in their fields.
Official website: yale.edu
UCD scores every college on four pillars: Outcomes, Value, Affordability, and Selectivity. Within peer group A (four-year selective institutions), Yale scores 86.32 overall, rated Strong. Outcomes (98.97) and Selectivity (98.92) reflect near-perfect graduation rates and one of the most competitive admissions pools in the country. Value scores 85.75, driven by ten-year median earnings of $100,533 against an average net price of $23,777. Affordability scores 26.26, the weakest pillar, reflecting that Yale's net price for the lowest-income bracket ($17,633) is higher than at peer universities with comparable endowments. All scores use verified federal data only.
Yale is among the most selective universities in the world, admitting 3.87% of applicants. Yale is test-optional; submitting SAT or ACT scores is not required and the decision not to submit is not penalized. Students who submit scores typically average 1,534 on the SAT, with the middle 50% scoring between 33 and 35 on the ACT.
Yale uses a Single Choice Early Action option with a November 1 deadline; it is non-binding but restricts applicants from applying early to other private universities. The Regular Decision deadline is January 2. The review is genuinely holistic: Yale's admissions office explicitly prioritizes applicants who will contribute to the intellectual, creative, and community life of the residential college system.
Acceptance rate over the last five admission cycles. The trend tells you whether Yale University is getting harder, easier, or staying about the same.
Yale's sticker price is $67,250 in tuition plus $19,900 in room and board, bringing the estimated total cost of attendance to approximately $88,000 before aid. Families earning under $75,000 per year pay nothing for tuition, room, and board.
Yale meets 100% of demonstrated financial need for all admitted U.S. students, with aid packages consisting of grants and work-study only, no loans. The average net price across all students is $23,777. For families earning under $30,000, the net price averages $17,633. For families earning between $75,001 and $110,000, the average net price is $12,558. For families earning above $110,000, the net price averages $45,951.
Published cost of attendance, the sticker price before grants and scholarships. Most students underestimate room & board and other expenses.
Application fee: $80 (one-time, due at submission)
Aid is need-based, so net price varies by family income. Here's what each bracket typically pays after grants and scholarships.
Cumulative federal-loan debt across the full borrowing distribution. The 10th and 90th percentiles bracket the typical range; the median sits in the middle.
Median federal-loan debt at graduation broken down by demographic. Each slice's size is proportional to the dollar amount that group typically borrows.
Yale completes the large majority of the students it enrolls. The six-year graduation rate is 95.74% for full-time, first-time bachelor's-seeking students. The four-year rate is 87.3%, and first-year retention stands at 98.87%. These figures reflect both the selectivity of Yale's admissions and the residential college system, which integrates faculty, graduate students, and undergraduates into 14 smaller academic and social communities. Graduate and professional school placement is high: a significant share of Yale graduates pursue law, medicine, or doctoral study, which can shift median earnings figures in early career years.
Yale graduates earn at the top of the national distribution. Median earnings are $81,765 six years after first enrolling and $100,533 at ten years. At the ten-year mark, 90.2% of former students earn more than a typical high school graduate.
The six-year figure is lower than at MIT or Stanford in part because a large share of Yale graduates enroll in law school, medical school, or doctoral programs immediately after graduation, delaying peak earnings by several years. Only 5.4% of enrolled students take federal loans. Median debt at graduation is $12,975, well below the national average for private research universities.
Median annual earnings 6, 8, and 10 years after students first enrolled.
Mean annual earnings 10 years after entry, segmented by demographic. Reveals gaps the headline median can't show.
Median earnings for female grads ten years after first enrolling here.
Median earnings for male grads ten years after first enrolling here.
Earnings of grads from the bottom-third of family incomes at entry.
Earnings of grads from the middle-third of family incomes at entry.
Earnings of grads from the top-third of family incomes at entry.
Share of completer-cohort borrowers paying down at least $1 of principal at the 1-, 3-, 5-, and 7-year mark. Climbing rates show graduates settling into careers and managing debt; flat or declining rates are a warning.
Yale enrolls 6,758 undergraduates, housed across 14 residential colleges that each function as a smaller academic and social community within the larger university. White students account for 31.22% of undergraduates; Asian 21.94%, Hispanic 16.59%, and Black 9.29%. Twenty percent of undergraduates receive Pell grants, and 25% are first-generation college students. International students make up approximately 12% of the undergraduate class. The 14-college residential system shapes social life significantly: students eat, live, and participate in intramurals and activities within their assigned college, fostering close-knit communities across the four years.
Undergraduate student body composition reported to the US Department of Education.
Where students live, learn, and connect at Yale University. The campus setting, housing profile, and signals that shape day-to-day life here.
Yale University offers an extensive catalog of programs: 166 distinct programs across 22 majors. Below are its strongest majors, each with flagship programs and typical earnings. Open a major to explore it in depth, or browse the full program catalog.
Yale operates at a 6:1 student-to-faculty ratio. 75% of instruction is delivered by full-time faculty, lower than most peer research universities and reflecting Yale's significant use of visiting scholars, lecturers, and postdoctoral instructors in certain departments. Instructional spending per full-time equivalent student is $80,541 per year. The endowment stands at $41.44 billion, the second largest of any university in the world. Yale pioneered the endowment investment model now widely copied by other universities: heavy allocation to alternative assets including private equity, real estate, and hedge funds.
2,881 instructional faculty across 4 ranks. The rank mix shows how many senior faculty are teaching versus contingent or junior staff, with average salary equated to a 9-month contract.
| Rank | Faculty Count | Share | Avg Salary |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full Professors | 1,085 | 38% | $279,433 |
| Associate Professors | 581 | 20% | $166,983 |
| Assistant Professors | 743 | 26% | $142,099 |
| Lecturers | 472 | 16% | $100,924 |
Yale's strongest data points are its Outcomes (98.97), Selectivity (98.92), and a $41.44 billion endowment that ranks second globally. The arts and professional school programs, including Yale Law School and the Yale School of Drama, are among the most selective in the country.
The challenge is Affordability (26.26): Yale's net price for families earning under $30,000 ($17,633) is higher than at Harvard ($8,697) or Princeton ($41), suggesting aid for the lowest-income families is less comprehensive relative to endowment size. Best fit for students interested in humanities, law, or creative arts at the graduate level; students at any income level who will apply for financial aid; and students who want a residential college structure that integrates social and intellectual life.
The questions below address what students and families most commonly search about Yale: how competitive admissions are, how financial aid works at different income levels, what the residential college system means in practice, and what graduates earn. Yale's endowment is the second largest in the world, yet its net price for the lowest-income families is higher than at peer universities with smaller endowments; the answers below explain what the financial aid program actually covers.
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