College profile
Cottey College
MO · Private nonprofit · Remote town · 567 applicants 2023
A parent's read
- The 6× payoff headline requires aid. Without aid this runs ~$39,269/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 ~$13,805/yr — against that, ten years of median earnings run ~6× the cost. Run the college's own net-price calculator before anchoring on the multiple.
- 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
AccessibleAccessible for most applicants. Heavy discounting — among aid recipients average ~$13,805/yr net; strong students should also check the merit grid.
Best for
- Students drawn to Biological & Biomedical Sciences or Business, Management, & Marketing (the two biggest majors)
- Families wanting a small liberal-arts experience
The reality
- You'd be near the bottom of their admitted class if: ACT below 14 (test bands are the school's own; the GPA floor is our estimate, not a published figure)
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?
11% of enrolled first-years submitted an ACT score — this range describes 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.
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 Cottey College actually costs
Which side your family lands on isn't set by any national income line — it's set by Cottey College'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
+$197K ahead at full price +$299K 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; earnings are 10 years after enrollment, all majors combined.
What students study here
Most popular majors at Cottey College
Top 5 fields of study by bachelor's degrees awarded (most recent IPEDS Completions). Use this to see what Cottey College actually graduates — not just what it markets.
Sources: IPEDS Completions (C2023_a; bachelor's-level first majors, 2-digit CIP family — share is of the top 5 only). Full college-vs-major comparison: /college-outcomes →
Alternatives to Cottey College
Matched not just by selectivity, but by strategic goal — what a family actually decides on.
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At a glance
JSON · Using this page with an AI assistantCottey College is a private nonprofit four-year college in MO. It admitted 66% of applicants (567 applied, 2023). Test policy: Test-optional.
Middle 50% of enrolled first-years who submitted that test: ACT 14–24. 11% of enrolled first-years submitted an ACT score — this range describes students who submitted, not the whole class.
Cost: about $13,805 a year on average with aid, $39,269 a year at full price.
Median earnings ten years after entry: $35,422 a year. Payoff, meaning ten years of that pay minus four years of cost: $299,000 ahead with aid, $197,144 ahead at full price.
Machine-readable version of this page: https://highschoolreach.com/colleges/cottey-college.json