College profile
Oakland University
MI · Public · Large suburb · 12,398 applicants 2023
A parent's read
- The payoff holds even at full price: roughly 6× over a decade. With no aid at all — the full in-state ~$25,182/yr — a decade of median earnings (~$58,612/yr) still runs about 6× 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 ~$9,120/yr among aid recipients.
Best for
- Students drawn to Health Professions or Business, Management, & Marketing (the two biggest majors)
- Research-curious students (R2 — active research output)
The reality
- You'd be near the bottom of their admitted class if: SAT below 995 (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?
1% of enrolled first-years submitted an SAT 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 Oakland University actually costs
Which side your family lands on isn't set by any national income line — it's set by Oakland 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
+$485K ahead at full price +$550K 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 Oakland University
Top 5 fields of study by bachelor's degrees awarded (most recent IPEDS Completions). Use this to see what Oakland University actually graduates — not just what it markets.
What those majors earn here
Median earnings 4 years after entry, by major — Oakland University's own graduates, not national averages.
| Major (CIP) | 4-yr earnings |
|---|---|
| Industrial Engineering. | $102,222 |
| Electrical, Electronics, and Communications Engineering. | $99,967 |
| Mechanical Engineering. | $97,444 |
| Computer Engineering. | $95,843 |
| Computer and Information Sciences, General. | $90,737 |
| Management Information Systems and Services. | $88,497 |
| Management Sciences and Quantitative Methods. | $87,119 |
| Public Health. | $85,266 |
| Business Administration, Management and Operations. | $84,052 |
| Accounting and Related Services. | $82,699 |
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 Oakland University
Full multi-lens comparison: /ai-colleges →
Alternatives to Oakland University
Matched not just by selectivity, but by strategic goal — what a family actually decides on.
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Deciding on Oakland University?
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At a glance
JSON · Using this page with an AI assistantOakland University is a public four-year college in MI. It admitted 70% of applicants (12,398 applied, 2023). Test policy: Test-optional.
Middle 50% of enrolled first-years who submitted that test: SAT 995–1185. 1% of enrolled first-years submitted an SAT score — this range describes students who submitted, not the whole class.
Cost: about $9,120 a year on average with aid, $25,182 a year at full price for in-state students.
Median earnings ten years after entry: $58,612 a year. Payoff, meaning ten years of that pay minus four years of cost: $549,640 ahead with aid, $485,392 ahead at full price.
Highest median earnings four years after the degree, by program: Industrial Engineering ($102,222); Electrical, Electronics, and Communications Engineering ($99,967); Mechanical Engineering ($97,444).
Economic mobility (Opportunity Insights): 5% of students came from families in the bottom fifth of income, and 22% of those reached the top fifth as adults.
Machine-readable version of this page: https://highschoolreach.com/colleges/oakland-university.json