College profile
University of Central Missouri
MO · Public · Distant town · 4,966 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 ~$22,947/yr — a decade of median earnings (~$49,560/yr) still runs about 5× the four-year cost. This payoff doesn't depend on qualifying for anything. (Out-of-state costs more.)
- Built for the AI economy. About 1 in 3 degrees here is already in AI, computer science, or data fields. This campus is leaning into the shift, not waiting for it.
- 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 ~$14,462/yr among aid recipients. Major value play for in-state residents.
Best for
- In-state residents (tuition ~$10,050 — major value play)
The reality
- You'd be near the bottom of their admitted class if: ACT below 18 (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?
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.
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 University of Central Missouri actually costs
Which side your family lands on isn't set by any national income line — it's set by University of Central Missouri'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
+$404K ahead at full price +$438K 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 University of Central Missouri
Top 5 fields of study by bachelor's degrees awarded (most recent IPEDS Completions). Use this to see what University of Central Missouri actually graduates — not just what it markets.
What those majors earn here
Median earnings 4 years after entry, by major — University of Central Missouri's own graduates, not national averages.
| Major (CIP) | 4-yr earnings |
|---|---|
| Construction Management. | $96,186 |
| Computer Science. | $90,822 |
| Quality Control and Safety Technologies/Technicians. | $84,738 |
| Computer/Information Technology Administration and Management. | $84,428 |
| Computer and Information Sciences, General. | $81,657 |
| Registered Nursing, Nursing Administration, Nursing Research and Clinical Nursing. | $80,542 |
| Accounting and Related Services. | $76,930 |
| Engineering Technologies/Technicians, General. | $75,375 |
| Drafting/Design Engineering Technologies/Technicians. | $71,326 |
| Economics. | $69,359 |
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 →
Alternatives to University of Central Missouri
Matched not just by selectivity, but by strategic goal — what a family actually decides on.
Or compare any college side-by-side
Deciding on University of Central Missouri?
Get the full picture in one free report — your child's Reach / Competitive / Match / Likely odds and your real net price, for University of Central Missouri and every other college on your list.
Get your child's odds at University of Central Missouri →Score-odds calculator · Improve the score first · Find merit aid
For Parents
Get alerts when University of Central Missouri's numbers change
New admit rates, costs, and outcomes — a few alerts a year, no spam. Your email also saves your list across devices.
Objective, government-grade data — no school pays us for placement.
At a glance
JSON · Using this page with an AI assistantUniversity of Central Missouri is a public four-year college in MO. It admitted 69% of applicants (4,966 applied, 2023). Test policy: Test-optional.
Middle 50% of enrolled first-years who submitted that test: ACT 18–24.
Cost: about $14,462 a year on average with aid, $22,947 a year at full price for in-state students.
Median earnings ten years after entry: $49,560 a year. Payoff, meaning ten years of that pay minus four years of cost: $437,752 ahead with aid, $403,812 ahead at full price.
Highest median earnings four years after the degree, by program: Construction Management ($96,186); Computer Science ($90,822); Quality Control and Safety Technologies/Technicians ($84,738).
Economic mobility (Opportunity Insights): 5% of students came from families in the bottom fifth of income, and 17% of those reached the top fifth as adults.
Machine-readable version of this page: https://highschoolreach.com/colleges/university-of-central-missouri.json