College profile
North Dakota State University-Main Campus
ND · Public · Mid-size city · 7,331 applicants 2023
A parent's read
- The major moves the money more than the admit letter. Pharmacy, Pharmaceutical Sciences, and Administration grads from here earn about $125,175 four years out; sports, kinesiology, and physical education grads about $48,986 — 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 7× over a decade. With no aid at all — the full in-state ~$23,716/yr — a decade of median earnings (~$62,203/yr) still runs about 7× the four-year cost. This payoff doesn't depend on qualifying for anything. (Out-of-state costs more.)
- 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. Affordable — net price averages ~$15,543/yr among aid recipients. Major value play for in-state residents.
Best for
- In-state residents (tuition ~$11,110 — major value play)
- Students drawn to Business, Management, & Marketing or Health Professions (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: ACT below 19 (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?
4% 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 North Dakota State University-Main Campus actually costs
Which side your family lands on isn't set by any national income line — it's set by North Dakota State University-Main Campus'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
+$527K ahead at full price +$560K 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 North Dakota State University-Main Campus
Top 5 fields of study by bachelor's degrees awarded (most recent IPEDS Completions). Use this to see what North Dakota State University-Main Campus actually graduates — not just what it markets.
What those majors earn here
Median earnings 4 years after entry, by major — North Dakota State University-Main Campus's own graduates, not national averages.
| Major (CIP) | 4-yr earnings |
|---|---|
| Pharmacy, Pharmaceutical Sciences, and Administration. | $125,175 |
| Construction Engineering Technology/Technician. | $95,019 |
| Electrical, Electronics, and Communications Engineering. | $94,510 |
| Computer Engineering. | $92,878 |
| Mechanical Engineering. | $87,702 |
| Computer Science. | $87,562 |
| Agricultural Engineering. | $84,529 |
| Industrial Engineering. | $84,016 |
| Civil Engineering. | $83,992 |
| Agricultural Production Operations. | $83,779 |
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 North Dakota State University-Main Campus
Full multi-lens comparison: /ai-colleges →
Alternatives to North Dakota State University-Main Campus
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 assistantNorth Dakota State University-Main Campus is a public four-year college in ND. It admitted 96% of applicants (7,331 applied, 2023). Test policy: Test-optional.
Middle 50% of enrolled first-years who submitted that test: ACT 19–24. 4% of enrolled first-years submitted an ACT score — this range describes students who submitted, not the whole class.
Cost: about $15,543 a year on average with aid, $23,716 a year at full price for in-state students.
Median earnings ten years after entry: $62,203 a year. Payoff, meaning ten years of that pay minus four years of cost: $559,858 ahead with aid, $527,166 ahead at full price.
Highest median earnings four years after the degree, by program: Pharmacy, Pharmaceutical Sciences, and Administration ($125,175); Construction Engineering Technology/Technician ($95,019); Electrical, Electronics, and Communications Engineering ($94,510).
Economic mobility (Opportunity Insights): 5% of students came from families in the bottom fifth of income, and 33% of those reached the top fifth as adults.
Machine-readable version of this page: https://highschoolreach.com/colleges/north-dakota-state-university-main-campus.json