A parent's read

  • The 4× payoff headline requires aid. Without aid this runs ~$53,738/yr. There's no income cutoff for need-based aid — whether you qualify depends on the gap between a school's price and your family's finances, so at a price like this even six-figure incomes often show need. Families who receive aid average ~$27,686/yr — against that, ten years of median earnings run ~4× the cost. Run the college's own net-price calculator before anchoring on the multiple.
  • Worth asking: do students finish? Only 36% graduate within six years here — the standard federal measure. Ask what drives that: course availability, transfers out, students working long hours. Not finishing is the costliest outcome there is.

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

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

Parent/student verdict

Accessible

Accessible for most applicants.

Best for

  • Students drawn to Business, Management, & Marketing or Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness (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 with aid and at full price, Carnegie classification, scholarship grids) using transparent rule thresholds — not a chat-bot's opinion.

What are your child's odds here?

Enter their numbers once — this and every college page shows their verdict, and the UC campus cards on California school pages light up with it too. Free, no email.

Weighted is the higher GPA, with honors/AP credit in it — pick whichever your school reports. PSAT scores work in the SAT box.

Institutional snapshot

What kind of college is this?

Carnegie classification
Baccalaureate Colleges: Diverse Fields
Undergraduates
569
Under 1,000 including graduate students
TuitionThe published full price before any aid. Families who don't qualify for need-based aid at a given college pay this, minus any merit scholarships — whether you qualify depends on the college's price and policies, not on any fixed income line.
$33,000
flat rate (no in/out-of-state split) · 2023–24 federal figure
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.
78.6%
Accessible
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.
$49,694
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
$40,805
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.
$49,694
Graduate within 6 yrsThe share of students who start here and finish a bachelor's within six years — the standard federal measure, and the one College Scorecard publishes. It is not a four-year rate. Read it as the odds of finishing at all: nationally about a third of students who start never do, and an unfinished degree is the most expensive outcome in this decision.
36%
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."
$23,250

The real cost

What Bethany College actually costs

If you qualify for need aidGrant money based on your family's finances (via FAFSA and the college's own forms), not your student's stats.
$27,686/yr
average among aid-receiving families, all incomes — your number depends on your finances
If you don't
$53,738/yr
the full published price

Which side your family lands on isn't set by any national income line — it's set by Bethany College's own aid decision: the gap between its price and your family's finances.

Get your family's number — Bethany College's Net Price Calculator ↗ 10–15 minutes; have a tax return handy. It's still an estimate — but it's this college's own, built from your family's numbers, not anyone's average.
Start your Family Decision Report →

Your odds + estimated cost across your whole college list, side by side.

The payoffTen years of typical graduate pay minus four years of cost — how many dollars ahead a typical graduate runs by year ten. Check both the full-price and with-aid versions to see which applies to you; median pay reflects who a college admits and what they study as much as the college itself., both ways

+$282K ahead at full price +$386K 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)
$214,952
~$53,738/yr all-in
Aid recipients pay (4 yrs)
$110,744
$27,686/yr average
10-yr earnings total
$496,940
$49,694/yr median, 10 yrs out
Years to recoup the cost
4.3 yrs
at full price (2.2 with aid), at the median earnings rate

Source: College Scorecard (average net price among Title IV first-time, full-time undergraduates who received aid) and each college's published cost of attendance. We don't show the federal net-price-by-income brackets: their categories were fixed in 2008 and never adjusted, and none of the averages is your family's own number — the full story. Payoff = (10-yr median earnings × 10) − (4 years of cost), in dollars — how far ahead a typical graduate runs by year ten; medians travel with the students a college admits and the majors they choose as much as with the college itself. 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 Bethany College

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

1. Business, Management, & Marketing
31 degrees · 29.2%
Broad set of corporate roles. Finance + consulting pay top, accounting + HR pay middle, sales spread is wide.
2. Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness
26 degrees · 24.5%
Coaching, athletic training, public-sector recreation, fitness industry.
3. Education
19 degrees · 17.9%
Teaching is the largest path. Salary depends heavily on district + state.
4. Biological & Biomedical Sciences
18 degrees · 17.0%
Many bio majors → med school / grad school. Direct-employment bio roles are lower-paid than that pipeline.
5. Psychology
12 degrees · 11.3%
Most undergrad psych grads go into non-clinical roles. Clinical/counseling psych requires a master's or doctoral.

What those majors earn here

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

Major (CIP) Credential Cohort 1-yr earnings 4-yr earnings
Biology, General. Bachelor's Degree 15 $29,330 $54,633
Criminology. Bachelor's Degree $50,697
Business, Management, Marketing, and Related Support Services, Other. Bachelor's Degree 14 $47,895
Sports, Kinesiology, and Physical Education/Fitness. Bachelor's Degree 26 $28,881 $39,643

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. It measures two things at once: how many lower-income students a college enrols, and how many of them reach the top earnings quintile later. A high rate says the college does both — it does not establish that the campus caused the earnings, because the students it admits differ from the students it doesn't. Read it as a signal about access and destination, not as proof of value added.

Top-1% access
0.4%
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.
1.1%
bottom 20% → top 20% by age 32
Upward rate
18.6%
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.
48%
on federal need grants — context for these numbers

Full leaderboards: /college-mobility →

Alternatives to Bethany 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 in Huntsville
AL · Public
39 stats-based merit scholarships
Texas Tech University
TX · Public
30 stats-based + 1 competitive scholarships
The University of Alabama
AL · Public
21 stats-based + 2 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) · $41,901 less before aid for IN residents
Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College
GA · Public
$13,956/yr full price (in-state) · $39,782 less before aid for GA residents
Indiana University-Northwest
IN · Public
$13,989/yr full price (in-state) · $39,749 less before aid for IN residents
Safer in-state options
Same state and similar selectivity, but with a more forgiving admit rate — useful safety / match anchors.
Fort Hays State University
KS · Public
92% admit rate (vs 79% here)
Wichita State University
KS · Public
95% admit rate (vs 79% here)
Emporia State University
KS · Public
98% admit rate (vs 79% here)
More students move up here
Per Opportunity Insights, a larger share of these campuses' lower-income students reach the top earnings quintile than at Bethany College. That reflects who they admit as well as what they do, so read it as a destination signal rather than proof of value added.
MCPHS University
MA · Private nonprofit
9.3% mobility rate (vs 1.1% here)
Pace University
NY · Private nonprofit
8.4% mobility rate (vs 1.1% here)
CUNY New York City College of Technology
NY · Public
8.3% mobility rate (vs 1.1% here)

Or compare any college side-by-side

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At a glance

JSON · Using this page with an AI assistant

Bethany College is a private nonprofit four-year college in KS. It admitted 79% of applicants (1,860 applied, 2023). Test policy: Test-optional.

Cost: about $27,686 a year on average with aid, $53,738 a year at full price.

Median earnings ten years after entry: $49,694 a year. Payoff, meaning ten years of that pay minus four years of cost: $386,196 ahead with aid, $281,988 ahead at full price.

Highest median earnings four years after the degree, by program: Biology, General ($54,633); Criminology ($50,697); Business, Management, Marketing, and Related Support Services, Other ($47,895).

Economic mobility (Opportunity Insights): 6% of students came from families in the bottom fifth of income, and 19% of those reached the top fifth as adults.

Machine-readable version of this page: https://highschoolreach.com/colleges/bethany-college.json

By major: BiologyBusiness AdministrationCriminal Justice and CriminologyKinesiology
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