College profile
Shaw University
NC · Private nonprofit · Large city · 10,699 applicants 2023
A parent's read
- The 5× payoff headline requires aid. Without aid this runs ~$30,861/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 ~$16,512/yr — against that, ten years of median earnings run ~5× the cost. Run the college's own net-price calculator before anchoring on the multiple.
- Worth asking: do students finish? Only 22% 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
SelectiveSelective but achievable for strong students. Heavy discounting — among aid recipients average ~$16,512/yr net; strong students should also check the merit grid.
Best for
- Strong overall academic profile (3.9+ unweighted GPA in rigorous coursework + strong essays — school is test-optional, so the transcript carries the most weight)
- Students drawn to Business, Management, & Marketing or Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness (the two biggest majors)
- Families wanting a small liberal-arts experience
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.
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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 Shaw University actually costs
Which side your family lands on isn't set by any national income line — it's set by Shaw 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
+$221K ahead at full price +$278K 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 Shaw University
Top 5 fields of study by bachelor's degrees awarded (most recent IPEDS Completions). Use this to see what Shaw University actually graduates — not just what it markets.
What those majors earn here
Median earnings 4 years after entry, by major — Shaw University's own graduates, not national averages.
| Major (CIP) | 4-yr earnings |
|---|---|
| Business Administration, Management and Operations. | $47,401 |
| Social Work. | $46,981 |
| Sports, Kinesiology, and Physical Education/Fitness. | $44,010 |
| Criminal Justice and Corrections. | $43,299 |
| Communication and Media Studies. | $28,545 |
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 Shaw University
Full multi-lens comparison: /ai-colleges →
Alternatives to Shaw University
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 assistantShaw University is a private nonprofit four-year college in NC. It admitted 30% of applicants (10,699 applied, 2023). Test policy: Test-optional.
Cost: about $16,512 a year on average with aid, $30,861 a year at full price.
Median earnings ten years after entry: $34,409 a year. Payoff, meaning ten years of that pay minus four years of cost: $278,042 ahead with aid, $220,646 ahead at full price.
Highest median earnings four years after the degree, by program: Business Administration, Management and Operations ($47,401); Social Work ($46,981); Sports, Kinesiology, and Physical Education/Fitness ($44,010).
Economic mobility (Opportunity Insights): 30% of students came from families in the bottom fifth of income, and 9% of those reached the top fifth as adults.
Machine-readable version of this page: https://highschoolreach.com/colleges/shaw-university.json