College profile
Clemson University
SC · Public · Mid-size suburb · 60,122 applicants 2023
A parent's read
- The major moves the money more than the admit letter. Information Science grads from here earn about $105,646 four years out; natural resources conservation and research grads about $40,266 — a 2.6× spread on the same diploma. Have the major conversation before you deposit, not after.
- The payoff holds even at full price: roughly 5× over a decade. With no aid at all — the full in-state ~$35,015/yr — a decade of median earnings (~$71,513/yr) still runs about 5× the four-year cost. This payoff doesn't depend on qualifying for anything. (Out-of-state costs more.)
- Almost everyone who starts here finishes. 87% graduate within six years — the standard federal measure. Nationally about a third of students who start a bachelor's never finish one, and an unfinished degree is the most expensive outcome in this decision: the debt stays, the credential doesn't.
- Ask the submit question deliberately. This college is test-optional — but at many such colleges, applicants who submit strong scores are admitted at meaningfully higher rates. “Optional” is a strategy decision, not a pass.
Composed from this page's data — every claim is backed by a number in the sections below.
Parent/student verdict
Moderately selectiveSolid match for academically prepared students.
Best for
- Solid academic profiles — the admitted-student bands above are within reach for strong students
- Students drawn to Business, Management, & Marketing or Engineering (the two biggest majors)
- Research-oriented students (R1 — top tier of federal research funding)
The reality
- You'd be near the bottom of their admitted class if: SAT below 1230, or ACT below 28, or unweighted GPA below 3.80 (test bands are the school's own; the 3.80 line is our estimate, not a published figure)
- Out-of-state tuition is 2.6× the in-state rate
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?
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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?
39% of enrolled first-years submitted an SAT score, 21% an ACT — these ranges describe students who submitted, not the whole class.
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.
High-school GPA
4.00 avg unweightedGPA on the plain 4.0 scale, no honors/AP bonus. When a college publishes an "average admitted GPA of 3.9," it's often this scale — don't compare it to a weighted 4.3. GPA, enrolled first-years
unweighted 4.0 scale. Clemson University Common Data Set 2022-2023, section C12 (Office of Institutional Research, Clemson OPEN repository) ↗
As published by the college in its Common Data Set / admissions data (2022-23) — independently verified 2026-07-23 (source linked above). GPA basis (weighted vs. unweighted vs. 4.0-scale) varies by college and is labeled above.
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).
The real cost
What Clemson University actually costs
Which side your family lands on isn't set by any national income line — it's set by Clemson University's own aid decision: the gap between its price and your family's finances.
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
+$575K ahead at full price +$626K with aidSource: 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, largely in-state for publics; earnings are 10 years after enrollment, all majors combined.
What students study here
Most popular majors at Clemson University
Top 5 fields of study by bachelor's degrees awarded (most recent IPEDS Completions). Use this to see what Clemson University actually graduates — not just what it markets.
What those majors earn here
Median earnings 4 years after entry, by major — Clemson University's own graduates, not national averages.
| Major (CIP) | 4-yr earnings |
|---|---|
| Information Science/Studies. | $105,646 |
| Computer Engineering. | $102,762 |
| Computer and Information Sciences, General. | $101,301 |
| Construction Management. | $98,726 |
| Electrical, Electronics, and Communications Engineering. | $96,446 |
| Engineering-Related Fields. | $94,449 |
| Biomedical/Medical Engineering. | $93,705 |
| Industrial Engineering. | $92,491 |
| Chemical Engineering. | $92,098 |
| Finance and Financial Management Services. | $91,269 |
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.
Full leaderboards: /college-mobility →
AI program signal
AI + computing education at Clemson University
Full multi-lens comparison: /ai-colleges →
Alternatives to Clemson University
Matched not just by selectivity, but by strategic goal — what a family actually decides on.
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Feeder high schools
Which high schools send graduates to Clemson University?
Enrolled — from the schools' matriculation lists
81 high schools publish a numbered matriculation list — where their graduates actually enrolled, counted, in the school's own School Profile — and name Clemson University on it. Between them they printed 265 enrolled graduates. Ranked by graduates per class year enrolling at Clemson University, from each school's own published list: the number that school printed, divided by the class years its list covers. The published total and the school's own years label are shown beside every school, so a one-year list and a five-year list can sit on the same page. A list whose class years we cannot read is not divided by a guess — it is listed below with its total instead.
and 70 more
Published, but not ranked — these schools name Clemson University on a list of where their graduates enrolled whose class years we cannot read ("Since 2023", or no class year printed), so their totals are shown rather than divided: Woodlawn School (5, not stated).
Admitted — from the schools' acceptance lists
11 high schools publish a numbered list of college acceptances — where their graduates were admitted, not where they enrolled — and name Clemson University on it. Between them they printed 74 admissions. Ranked by admissions per class year to Clemson University, from each school's own published acceptances list: the number that school printed, divided by the class years its list covers. Admits are counted at each college a student was admitted to, the same way the UC Reach Score counts a student admitted to three UC campuses three times — so this is a count of admissions, not of students. The published total and the school's own years label are shown beside every school, and a list whose class years we cannot read is listed below with its total rather than divided by a guess.
and 1 more
All 92 feeder schools, ranked →
Counted from each school's own published document, linked on that school's page. A high school that is not here does not publish a numbered list we could read — that is all absence means, and it says nothing about its graduates. Where a school publishes both, the two lists are shown separately: an acceptances list is not a list of enrollments, and the two are never added together.
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At a glance
JSON · Using this page with an AI assistantClemson University is a public four-year college in SC. It admitted 38% of applicants (60,122 applied, 2023). Test policy: Test-optional.
Middle 50% of enrolled first-years who submitted that test: SAT 1230–1390, ACT 28–32. 39% of enrolled first-years submitted an SAT score, 21% an ACT — these ranges describe students who submitted, not the whole class. Average enrolled GPA 4.0 (unweighted, 2022-23, as published by the college).
Cost: about $22,253 a year on average with aid, $35,015 a year at full price for in-state students.
Median earnings ten years after entry: $71,513 a year. Payoff, meaning ten years of that pay minus four years of cost: $626,118 ahead with aid, $575,070 ahead at full price.
Highest median earnings four years after the degree, by program: Information Science/Studies ($105,646); Computer Engineering ($102,762); Computer and Information Sciences, General ($101,301).
Economic mobility (Opportunity Insights): 3% of students came from families in the bottom fifth of income, and 38% of those reached the top fifth as adults.
High schools that publish a numbered matriculation list and name Clemson University: 81, 265 enrolled students between them — ranked by graduates per class year, most often Providence Day School (11.0 per class year, 11 over 1 class year, Class of 2026); The Bolles School (6.0 per class year, 6 over 1 class year, Class of 2026); Suffield Academy (5.0 per class year, 5 over 1 class year, Class of 2025). Each figure is the number that school printed divided by the class years its own list covers; the totals and years are shown. These are the schools that publish such a list, not every school that sends students; full list: https://highschoolreach.com/leaderboards/feeder-schools/clemson-university.
High schools that publish a numbered list of college acceptances naming Clemson University: 11, 74 admissions between them — ranked by admissions per class year, most often St Andrews School Of Boca Raton Inc (11.0 per class year, 11 over 1 class year, Class of 2026); Oratory Preparatory School (10.0 per class year, 10 over 1 class year, Class of 2025); Canterbury School-Fort Myers (9.0 per class year, 9 over 1 class year, Class of 2026). Admits are counted at each college, so this counts admissions, not students. These are a different set of documents from the matriculation lists above and the two are never added together; full list: https://highschoolreach.com/leaderboards/feeder-schools/clemson-university.
Machine-readable version of this page: https://highschoolreach.com/colleges/clemson-university.json