College profile
Liberty University
VA · Private nonprofit · Small city · 36,921 applicants 2023
A parent's read
- The major moves the money more than the admit letter. Air Transportation grads from here earn about $102,096 four years out; apparel and textiles grads about $38,226 — a 2.7× spread on the same diploma. Have the major conversation before you deposit, not after.
- The 4× payoff headline requires aid. Without aid this runs ~$42,025/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 ~$29,357/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.
- 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.
Best for
- Students drawn to Business, Management, & Marketing or Multi/Interdisciplinary Studies (the two biggest majors)
- Students who thrive in a large, programmatic environment
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?
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 Liberty University actually costs
Which side your family lands on isn't set by any national income line — it's set by Liberty 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
+$280K ahead at full price +$331K 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 Liberty University
Top 5 fields of study by bachelor's degrees awarded (most recent IPEDS Completions). Use this to see what Liberty University actually graduates — not just what it markets.
What those majors earn here
Median earnings 4 years after entry, by major — Liberty University's own graduates, not national averages.
| Major (CIP) | 4-yr earnings |
|---|---|
| Air Transportation. | $102,096 |
| Industrial Engineering. | $94,928 |
| Electrical, Electronics, and Communications Engineering. | $89,244 |
| Mechanical Engineering. | $89,129 |
| Management Information Systems and Services. | $84,228 |
| Registered Nursing, Nursing Administration, Nursing Research and Clinical Nursing. | $82,883 |
| Computer and Information Sciences, General. | $82,116 |
| Mathematics. | $81,095 |
| International Relations and National Security Studies. | $71,436 |
| Business Administration, Management and Operations. | $67,269 |
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 →
AI program signal
AI + computing education at Liberty University
Full multi-lens comparison: /ai-colleges →
Alternatives to Liberty University
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Feeder high schools
Which high schools send graduates to Liberty University?
Enrolled — from the schools' matriculation lists
12 high schools publish a numbered matriculation list — where their graduates actually enrolled, counted, in the school's own School Profile — and name Liberty University on it. Between them they printed 17 enrolled graduates. Ranked by graduates per class year enrolling at Liberty 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 2 more
Admitted — from the schools' acceptance lists
2 high schools publish a numbered list of college acceptances — where their graduates were admitted, not where they enrolled — and name Liberty University on it. Between them they printed 3 admissions. Ranked by admissions per class year to Liberty 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 14 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 assistantLiberty University is a private nonprofit four-year college in VA. It admitted 99% of applicants (36,921 applied, 2023). Test policy: Test-optional.
Cost: about $29,357 a year on average with aid, $42,025 a year at full price.
Median earnings ten years after entry: $44,813 a year. Payoff, meaning ten years of that pay minus four years of cost: $330,702 ahead with aid, $280,030 ahead at full price.
Highest median earnings four years after the degree, by program: Air Transportation ($102,096); Industrial Engineering ($94,928); Electrical, Electronics, and Communications Engineering ($89,244).
High schools that publish a numbered matriculation list and name Liberty University: 12, 17 enrolled students between them — ranked by graduates per class year, most often Community School Of Naples (1.0 per class year, 1 over 1 class year, class of 2026); The Bolles School (1.0 per class year, 1 over 1 class year, Class of 2026); Virginia Episcopal School (1.0 per class year, 1 over 1 class year, Class of 2024). 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/liberty-university.
High schools that publish a numbered list of college acceptances naming Liberty University: 2, 3 admissions between them — ranked by admissions per class year, most often Oratory Preparatory School (1.0 per class year, 1 over 1 class year, Class of 2025); Key School (0.3 per class year, 2 over 6 class years, 2021 - 2026, counted column "Acceptances 2021–2026"). 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/liberty-university.
Machine-readable version of this page: https://highschoolreach.com/colleges/liberty-university.json