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🎓 College profile

Barton College

NC · Private nonprofit · Fringe town · 2,228 applicants 2023

96% admit rate $30,286/yr at $110k+ income

🧭 A parent's read

  • The 5× payoff headline requires aid. Without aid this runs ~$51,935/yr, and many families above ~$110K income won't qualify for need-based aid here. Families who do receive aid average ~$23,626/yr — against that, ten years of median earnings run ~5× the cost. Run the college's own net-price calculator before anchoring on the multiple.
  • Worth asking: the four-year finish rate. Only 46% finish in four years here. Ask what drives that — course availability, transfers, work loads — because a fifth year is a real cost few families budget for.

Composed from this page's data — every claim is backed by a number in the sections below.

Get your child's odds at Barton College Free Family Decision Report — Reach / Match / Likely + your real net price. Barton College starts already on the list. Start →

🎯 Parent/student verdict

Likely

Accessible for most applicants.

✅ Best for

  • Students drawn to Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness or Health Professions (the two biggest majors)
  • Families wanting a small liberal-arts experience

Verdict is composed from this college's structured data (admit rate, SAT bands, net price by income, Carnegie classification, scholarship grids) using transparent rule thresholds — not a chat-bot's opinion.

🏛️ Institutional snapshot

What kind of college is this?

Carnegie classification
Baccalaureate Colleges: Diverse Fields
Total enrollment
982
1,000 - 4,999
TuitionThe published full price before any aid. Families who don't qualify for need-based aid — common above ~$110K income — pay this, minus any merit scholarships.
$37,250
flat rate (no in/out-of-state split)
Admit rateThe share of applicants a college accepts. Useful context, but your student's odds depend on their own grades and scores, not the average.
95.9%
Accepts the majority
Test policyApplicants choose whether to send SAT/ACT scores. At many such colleges, students who submit strong scores are still admitted at higher rates.
Test-optional
2023
10-yr earningsMedian yearly pay of former students ten years after they STARTED here — not ten years after graduating — all majors combined. The broadest single outcome number a college reports.
$47,913
median, after entry

Source: federal IPEDS Admissions 2023 for scores + admit rate; federal College Scorecard (20260606 vintage) for earnings + outcomes. SAT/ACT bands are the 25th–75th percentile of enrolled submitters.

📊 Outcomes & cost

What graduates actually earn, finish, and owe.

Federal College Scorecard data. Earnings are median annual income measured years after entering. Debt is for federal-aid borrowers only (cash-pay students aren't counted).

Earnings, 6 yrs after entry
$40,785
Earnings, 10 yrs after entryMedian yearly pay of former students ten years after they STARTED here — not ten years after graduating — all majors combined. The broadest single outcome number a college reports.
$47,913
4-year completionThe share of students who finish a bachelor's in four years. Nationally barely half do — and a fifth year quietly adds a full extra year of cost to the real price.
46%
Median debt (completers)The federal-loan balance of the typical graduating borrower. Families who pay cash aren't counted, so read it as "among those who borrowed."
$25,877

💰 The real cost

What families at your income actually pay

Above $110K income — where most Reach families sit — aid-receiving families average $30,286/yr at Barton College; families who don't qualify for aid pay the full ~$51,935/yr. Lower brackets pay less — the full ladder is below. One caveat, once: every bracket figure here averages only the families in that bracket who received aid — it says nothing about whether your family will qualify.

🔎 Earning over $110K? You're above the top federal bracket — the median family headed by a 45-to-54-year-old (the prime college-parent years) earned about $134K in 2024, and the federal data lumps everyone from $110K to $1M+ into one row.

Whether you'll get need aidGrant money based on your family's finances (via FAFSA and the college's own forms), not your student's stats. at this income is entirely college-specific: a few heavily-endowed schools meet full need well past $150K, while many others give little above the brackets shown — there, merit scholarships, where offered, become the realistic lever.

Start your Family Decision Report →

Your odds + estimated net price across your whole college list — then confirm the exact figure with Barton College's own Net Price Calculator ↗ (10–15 min; have your tax return handy).

Family income $110k+ most Reach families
$30,286/yr
Family income $75-110k
$25,308/yr
Family income $48-75k
$22,510/yr
Family income $30-48k
$18,497/yr
Family income $0-30k
$19,641/yr

📈 The payoffTen years of typical earnings divided by four years of cost. A 3× means a decade of median pay covers the cost three times over — check both the full-price and with-aid versions to see which applies to you., both ways

2.3× at full price 5.1× with aid
Full price, no aidThe all-in yearly price — tuition, housing, food, books, fees — before any aid. This is the real "full price," not just the tuition line. (4 yrs)
$207,740
~$51,935/yr all-in
Aid recipients pay (4 yrs)
$94,504
$23,626/yr average
10-yr earnings total
$479,130
$47,913/yr median, 10 yrs out
Years to recoup the cost
4.3 yrs
at full price (2.0 with aid), at the median earnings rate

Source: College Scorecard (NPT41–NPT45; Title IV first-time, full-time undergraduates; suppressed brackets = small cohorts; the $110K+ ceiling is a federal data limitation — the brackets haven't been refreshed since the early 2010s). Payoff multiple = (10-yr median earnings × 10) ÷ (4-yr cost); full price is the published cost of attendance; earnings are 10 years after enrollment, all majors combined.

📚 What students study here

Most popular majors at Barton College

Top 5 fields of study by bachelor's degrees awarded (most recent IPEDS Completions). Use this to see what Barton College actually graduates — not just what it markets.

1. Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness
50 degrees · 29.9%
Coaching, athletic training, public-sector recreation, fitness industry.
2. Health Professions
43 degrees · 25.7%
Highest-paying group on this list, but most careers require additional training beyond a 4-year degree.
3. Business, Management, & Marketing
42 degrees · 25.1%
Broad set of corporate roles. Finance + consulting pay top, accounting + HR pay middle, sales spread is wide.
4. Biological & Biomedical Sciences
18 degrees · 10.8%
Many bio majors → med school / grad school. Direct-employment bio roles are lower-paid than that pipeline.
5. Visual & Performing Arts
14 degrees · 8.4%
Highly variable. Steady-pay roles cluster in design, illustration, production. Performance careers have very wide income distributions.

💼 What those majors earn here

Median earnings 4 years after entry, by major — Barton College's own graduates, not national averages.

Major (CIP) Credential Cohort 1-yr earnings 4-yr earnings
Registered Nursing, Nursing Administration, Nursing Research and Clinical Nursing. Bachelor's Degree 37 $68,741 $79,283
Business Administration, Management and Operations. Bachelor's Degree 36 $44,374 $55,125

Sources: IPEDS Completions (C2023_a; bachelor's-level first majors, 2-digit CIP family — share is of the top 5 only) · College Scorecard program-level outcomes (PP-FOS). Full college-vs-major comparison: /college-outcomes →

📈 Student body & economic mobility

Who attends here — and what the campus adds.

Opportunity Insights data. Why it matters even if you're full-pay: a high mobility rate means the campus itself confers earnings power — the outcomes aren't just selection effects.

Top-1% access
1.3%
from top-1% households
Mobility rateThe share of ALL students who arrived from the bottom 20% of family incomes AND reached the top 20% themselves by their early 30s — access and lift in one number, and a sign the campus itself adds earnings power.
0.5%
bottom 20% → top 20% by age 32
Upward rate
7.2%
of lower-income students who reach the top 20%
Pell recipientsStudents receiving federal Pell grants, which go to lower- and middle-income families — the standard shorthand for a college's economic mix.
37%
on federal need grants — context for these numbers

Full leaderboards: /college-mobility →

Alternatives to Barton College

Matched not just by selectivity, but by strategic goal — what a family actually decides on.

🏆 Better merit-aid options
These similar-selectivity schools publish merit scholarships your family can plan around — your kid’s stats could unlock real scholarship dollars.
University of Alabama at Birmingham
AL · Public
17 stats-based + 2 competitive scholarships
University of Mississippi
MS · Public
14 stats-based + 1 competitive scholarships
University of Kentucky
KY · Public
8 stats-based + 5 competitive scholarships
💰 Lower full price
Similar selectivity, but a meaningfully lower full sticker price — the comparison that matters most for families who won't qualify for much need-based aid.
Indiana University-Kokomo
IN · Public
$11,837/yr full price (in-state) · $40,098 less before aid
Gordon State College
GA · Public
$14,771/yr full price (in-state) · $37,164 less before aid
Brigham Young University-Idaho
ID · Private nonprofit
$15,246/yr full price · $36,689 less before aid
🚀 Stronger campus value-add
Per Opportunity Insights, these campuses add more earnings power to the students they enroll than Barton College does — a quality signal, not a cost play.
California State University-Los Angeles
CA · Public
9.9% mobility rate (vs 0.5% here)
The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
TX · Public
7.7% mobility rate (vs 0.5% here)
The University of Texas at El Paso
TX · Public
6.8% mobility rate (vs 0.5% here)

⚖️ Or compare any college side-by-side

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