College profile
Northern Arizona University
AZ · Public · Small city · 37,805 applicants 2023
A parent's read
- The major moves the money more than the admit letter. Computer Science grads from here earn about $99,067 four years out; anthropology grads about $39,597 — a 2.5× 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 ~$29,933/yr — a decade of median earnings (~$54,384/yr) still runs about 5× 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 ~$14,158/yr among aid recipients. Major value play for in-state residents.
Best for
- In-state residents (tuition ~$13,009 — major value play)
- Students drawn to Business, Management, & Marketing or Health Professions (the two biggest majors)
- Research-curious students (R2 — active research output)
The reality
- You'd be near the bottom of their admitted class if: unweighted GPA below 3.50 (test bands are the school's own; the 3.50 line 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?
Enter their numbers once — this and every college page shows their verdict, and the UC campus cards on California school pages light up with it too. Free, no email.
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.
High-school GPA
3.70 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. Common Data Set 2024-2025 ↗
As published by the college in its Common Data Set / admissions data (2024-25) — 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 Northern Arizona University actually costs
Which side your family lands on isn't set by any national income line — it's set by Northern Arizona University's own aid decision: the gap between its price and your family's finances.
Northern Arizona University's own published aid policy · as published when we checked, August 2026
Who qualifies: AZ residents.
A2E guarantees full undergraduate tuition coverage [for] Arizona residents with a household income of $65,000 or less [and] members of one of Arizona's 22 federally recognized tribes (no income or residency requirement). || newly admitted Arizona first-year or transfer student (starting fall 2023 or later)
Income thresholds assume typical assets. Policy independently verified against the college's financial-aid pages ↗.
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
+$424K ahead at full price +$487K 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 Northern Arizona University
Top 5 fields of study by bachelor's degrees awarded (most recent IPEDS Completions). Use this to see what Northern Arizona University actually graduates — not just what it markets.
What those majors earn here
Median earnings 4 years after entry, by major — Northern Arizona University's own graduates, not national averages.
| Major (CIP) | 4-yr earnings |
|---|---|
| Computer Science. | $99,067 |
| Construction Management. | $99,015 |
| Computer Systems Analysis. | $97,511 |
| Electrical, Electronics, and Communications Engineering. | $95,388 |
| Mechanical Engineering. | $91,941 |
| Civil Engineering. | $88,184 |
| Registered Nursing, Nursing Administration, Nursing Research and Clinical Nursing. | $84,996 |
| Accounting and Related Services. | $81,144 |
| Environmental/Environmental Health Engineering. | $78,955 |
| Finance and Financial Management Services. | $77,855 |
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 Northern Arizona University
Full multi-lens comparison: /ai-colleges →
Alternatives to Northern Arizona University
Matched not just by selectivity, but by strategic goal — what a family actually decides on.
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Get your child's odds at Northern Arizona University →Score-odds calculator · Improve the score first · Find merit aid
Feeder high schools
Which high schools send graduates to Northern Arizona University?
Enrolled — from the schools' matriculation lists
4 high schools publish a numbered matriculation list — where their graduates actually enrolled, counted, in the school's own School Profile — and name Northern Arizona University on it. Between them they printed 27 enrolled graduates. Ranked by graduates per class year enrolling at Northern Arizona 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.
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 Northern Arizona University on it. Between them they printed 4 admissions. Ranked by admissions per class year to Northern Arizona 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 6 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.
For Parents
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At a glance
JSON · Using this page with an AI assistantNorthern Arizona University is a public four-year college in AZ. It admitted 91% of applicants (37,805 applied, 2023). Test policy: Test-optional.
Average enrolled GPA 3.7 (unweighted, 2024-25, as published by the college).
Cost: about $14,158 a year on average with aid, $29,933 a year at full price for in-state students.
Median earnings ten years after entry: $54,384 a year. Payoff, meaning ten years of that pay minus four years of cost: $487,208 ahead with aid, $424,108 ahead at full price.
Highest median earnings four years after the degree, by program: Computer Science ($99,067); Construction Management ($99,015); Computer Systems Analysis ($97,511).
Aid pledge published by the college: families earning under $65,000 pay no tuition (AZ residents).
High schools that publish a numbered matriculation list and name Northern Arizona University: 4, 27 enrolled students between them — ranked by graduates per class year, most often Kamehameha Schools (3.1 per class year, 22 over 7 class years, the last seven years, 2017-2023); Santa Margarita Catholic High School (1.0 per class year, 1 over 1 class year, Class of 2025); Albuquerque Academy (0.8 per class year, 3 over 4 class years, Classes of 2021-2024). 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/northern-arizona-university.
High schools that publish a numbered list of college acceptances naming Northern Arizona University: 2, 4 admissions between them — ranked by admissions per class year, most often Archbishop Mitty High School (3.0 per class year, 3 over 1 class year, Class of 2025); The Altamont School (0.2 per class year, 1 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/northern-arizona-university.
Machine-readable version of this page: https://highschoolreach.com/colleges/northern-arizona-university.json