College profile
Salem State University
MA · Public · Large suburb · 4,852 applicants 2023
A parent's read
- The payoff holds even at full price: roughly 5× over a decade. With no aid at all — the full in-state ~$28,291/yr — a decade of median earnings (~$56,662/yr) still runs about 5× the four-year cost. This payoff doesn't depend on qualifying for anything. (Out-of-state costs more.)
- Worth asking: do students finish? Only 50% graduate within six years here — the standard federal measure. Ask what drives that: course availability, transfers out, students working long hours. Not finishing is the costliest outcome there is.
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 ~$15,996/yr among aid recipients. Major value play for in-state residents.
Best for
- In-state residents (tuition ~$12,338 — major value play)
- Students drawn to Health Professions or Business, Management, & Marketing (the two biggest majors)
The reality
- You'd be near the bottom of their admitted class if: SAT below 990 (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?
6% 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 Salem State University actually costs
Which side your family lands on isn't set by any national income line — it's set by Salem State 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
+$453K ahead at full price +$503K 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 Salem State University
Top 5 fields of study by bachelor's degrees awarded (most recent IPEDS Completions). Use this to see what Salem State University actually graduates — not just what it markets.
What those majors earn here
Median earnings 4 years after entry, by major — Salem State University's own graduates, not national averages.
| Major (CIP) | 4-yr earnings |
|---|---|
| Registered Nursing, Nursing Administration, Nursing Research and Clinical Nursing. | $95,550 |
| Computer and Information Sciences, General. | $92,380 |
| Chemistry. | $81,266 |
| Business Administration, Management and Operations. | $67,789 |
| Biology, General. | $67,551 |
| Mathematics. | $61,259 |
| Social Work. | $60,026 |
| Criminal Justice and Corrections. | $59,774 |
| Geological and Earth Sciences/Geosciences. | $59,424 |
| Geography and Cartography. | $58,593 |
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 Salem State University
Full multi-lens comparison: /ai-colleges →
Alternatives to Salem State University
Matched not just by selectivity, but by strategic goal — what a family actually decides on.
Or compare any college side-by-side
Deciding on Salem State University?
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Get your child's odds at Salem State University →Score-odds calculator · Improve the score first · Find merit aid
Feeder high schools
Which high schools send graduates to Salem State University?
Enrolled — from the schools' matriculation lists
3 high schools publish a numbered matriculation list — where their graduates actually enrolled, counted, in the school's own School Profile — and name Salem State University on it. Between them they printed 3 enrolled graduates. Ranked by graduates per class year enrolling at Salem State 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
1 high schools publish a numbered list of college acceptances — where their graduates were admitted, not where they enrolled — and name Salem State University on it. Between them they printed 1 admissions. Ranked by admissions per class year to Salem State 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 4 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 assistantSalem State University is a public four-year college in MA. It admitted 96% of applicants (4,852 applied, 2023). Test policy: Test-optional.
Middle 50% of enrolled first-years who submitted that test: SAT 990–1160. 6% of enrolled first-years submitted an SAT score — this range describes students who submitted, not the whole class.
Cost: about $15,996 a year on average with aid, $28,291 a year at full price for in-state students.
Median earnings ten years after entry: $56,662 a year. Payoff, meaning ten years of that pay minus four years of cost: $502,636 ahead with aid, $453,456 ahead at full price.
Highest median earnings four years after the degree, by program: Registered Nursing, Nursing Administration, Nursing Research and Clinical Nursing ($95,550); Computer and Information Sciences, General ($92,380); Chemistry ($81,266).
Economic mobility (Opportunity Insights): 7% of students came from families in the bottom fifth of income, and 27% of those reached the top fifth as adults.
High schools that publish a numbered matriculation list and name Salem State University: 3, 3 enrolled students between them — ranked by graduates per class year, most often Friends School of Baltimore (1.0 per class year, 1 over 1 class year, Class of 2026); Berwick Academy (0.2 per class year, 1 over 5 class years, past five graduating classes (2021 – 2025)); Vermont Academy (0.2 per class year, 1 over 6 class years, Matriculation List (2021-2026)). 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/salem-state-university.
High schools that publish a numbered list of college acceptances naming Salem State University: 1, 1 admissions between them — ranked by admissions per class year, most often Archbishop Mitty High School (1.0 per class year, 1 over 1 class year, Class of 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/salem-state-university.
Machine-readable version of this page: https://highschoolreach.com/colleges/salem-state-university.json