College profile
Howard University
DC · Private nonprofit · Large city · 30,342 applicants 2023
Parent/student verdict
SelectiveSelective but achievable for strong students. Expect a high net price across most income brackets.
Best for
- Solid academic profiles — the admitted-student bands above are within reach for strong students
- Research-curious students (R2 — active research output)
The reality
- You'd be near the bottom of their admitted class if: SAT below 1100, or ACT below 22, or unweighted GPA below ~3.50 (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?
27% of enrolled first-years submitted an SAT score, 10% 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.
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 Howard University actually costs
Which side your family lands on isn't set by any national income line — it's set by Howard 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
+$412K ahead at full price +$429K 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 Howard University
Top 5 fields of study by bachelor's degrees awarded (most recent IPEDS Completions). Use this to see what Howard University actually graduates — not just what it markets.
What those majors earn here
Median earnings 4 years after entry, by major — Howard University's own graduates, not national averages.
| Major (CIP) | 4-yr earnings |
|---|---|
| Management Information Systems and Services. | $103,478 |
| International Business. | $100,344 |
| Accounting and Related Services. | $98,645 |
| Registered Nursing, Nursing Administration, Nursing Research and Clinical Nursing. | $94,136 |
| Business Administration, Management and Operations. | $88,875 |
| Finance and Financial Management Services. | $80,094 |
| Marketing. | $77,820 |
| English Language and Literature, General. | $73,929 |
| Health and Medical Administrative Services. | $68,877 |
| Public Relations, Advertising, and Applied Communication. | $67,881 |
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 Howard University
Full multi-lens comparison: /ai-colleges →
Alternatives to Howard University
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Feeder high schools
Which high schools send graduates to Howard University?
Enrolled — from the schools' matriculation lists
93 high schools publish a numbered matriculation list — where their graduates actually enrolled, counted, in the school's own School Profile — and name Howard University on it. Between them they printed 213 enrolled graduates. Ranked by graduates per class year enrolling at Howard 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 82 more
Published, but not ranked — these schools name Howard 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: The Lovett School (2, List as of 5/1/2026 (no class year printed on the list itself; page 2 header reads "College Acceptance and Matriculation" and links this file as the "Class of 2026 matriculation list")).
Admitted — from the schools' acceptance lists
8 high schools publish a numbered list of college acceptances — where their graduates were admitted, not where they enrolled — and name Howard University on it. Between them they printed 28 admissions. Ranked by admissions per class year to Howard 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.
All 100 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 assistantHoward University is a private nonprofit four-year college in DC. It admitted 35% of applicants (30,342 applied, 2023). Test policy: Test-optional.
Middle 50% of enrolled first-years who submitted that test: SAT 1100–1298, ACT 22–28. 27% of enrolled first-years submitted an SAT score, 10% an ACT — these ranges describe students who submitted, not the whole class.
Cost: about $50,539 a year on average with aid, $54,630 a year at full price.
Median earnings ten years after entry: $63,066 a year. Payoff, meaning ten years of that pay minus four years of cost: $428,504 ahead with aid, $412,140 ahead at full price.
Highest median earnings four years after the degree, by program: Management Information Systems and Services ($103,478); International Business ($100,344); Accounting and Related Services ($98,645).
Economic mobility (Opportunity Insights): 11% of students came from families in the bottom fifth of income, and 37% of those reached the top fifth as adults.
High schools that publish a numbered matriculation list and name Howard University: 93, 213 enrolled students between them — ranked by graduates per class year, most often McDonogh School (7.0 per class year, 7 over 1 class year, Class of 2026); Harvard-Westlake School (3.0 per class year, 3 over 1 class year, BY THE CLASSES OF 2021-2025, counted column "CLASS OF '25"); Avenues New York (2.0 per class year, 2 over 1 class year, CLASSES OF 2023–2026, counted column "CLASS OF 2026"). 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/howard-university.
High schools that publish a numbered list of college acceptances naming Howard University: 8, 28 admissions between them — ranked by admissions per class year, most often The Chapin School (1.6 per class year, 8 over 5 class years, 2022-2026, counted column "Admitted"); Key School (1.3 per class year, 8 over 6 class years, 2021 - 2026, counted column "Acceptances 2021–2026"); The Altamont School (1.0 per class year, 5 over 5 class years, Classes of 2021-2025). 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/howard-university.
Machine-readable version of this page: https://highschoolreach.com/colleges/howard-university.json