College profile
University of Utah
UT · Public · Mid-size city · 22,996 applicants 2023
A parent's read
- Top feeder high schools: Santa Margarita Catholic High School (26), The Waterford School (22), Mira Costa High School (18), Rowland Hall (14), Faith Lutheran Middle School & High School (11). Graduates per class year, from each high school's own published list. 77 high schools' lists name University of Utah; every one is ranked below.
- The major moves the money more than the admit letter. Computer Science grads from here earn about $137,329 four years out; anthropology grads about $43,492 — a 3.2× spread on the same diploma. Have the major conversation before you deposit, not after.
- The payoff holds even at full price: roughly 7× over a decade. With no aid at all — the full in-state ~$25,557/yr — a decade of median earnings (~$67,170/yr) still runs about 7× 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.
Feeder high schools
Which high schools send graduates to University of Utah?
The high schools sending the most graduates per class year to University of Utah, from each school's own published list: Santa Margarita Catholic High School (26), The Waterford School (22), Mira Costa High School (18), Rowland Hall (14), Faith Lutheran Middle School & High School (11). 77 high schools' lists name University of Utah.
Enrolled — from the schools' matriculation lists
All 77 schools, with the class years each list covers
Published, but not ranked — these schools name University of Utah on a list of where their graduates enrolled whose class years we cannot read ("Since 2023", or no class year printed), so their totals are shown rather than divided: Yorba Linda High School (5, not stated).
How this is counted
77 high schools publish a numbered matriculation list — where their graduates actually enrolled, counted, in the school's own School Profile — and name University of Utah on it. Between them they printed 260 enrolled graduates. Ranked by graduates per class year enrolling at University of Utah, 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.
Is my high school on this list?
Admitted — from the schools' acceptance lists
All 12 schools, with the class years each list covers
How this is counted
12 high schools publish a numbered list of college acceptances — where their graduates were admitted, not where they enrolled — and name University of Utah on it. Between them they printed 180 admissions. Ranked by admissions per class year to University of Utah, 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 86 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.
Parent/student verdict
AccessibleAccessible for most applicants. Affordable — net price averages ~$16,200/yr among aid recipients. Major value play for in-state residents.
Best for
- Solid academic profiles — the admitted-student bands above are within reach for strong students
- In-state residents (tuition ~$9,620 — major value play)
- Students drawn to Social Sciences or Business, Management, & Marketing (the two biggest majors)
- Research-oriented students (R1 — top tier of federal research funding)
- Students who thrive in a large, programmatic environment
The reality
- You'd be near the bottom of their admitted class if: SAT below 1180, or ACT below 22, or unweighted GPA below ~3.50 (test bands are the school's own; the GPA floor is our estimate, not a published figure)
- Out-of-state tuition is 3.2× the in-state rate
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?
10% of enrolled first-years submitted an SAT score, 44% an ACT — these ranges describe 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 University of Utah actually costs
Which side your family lands on isn't set by any national income line — it's set by University of Utah's own aid decision: the gap between its price and your family's finances.
University of Utah's own published aid policy · as published when we checked, August 2026
Who qualifies: UT residents.
Utah Promise ensures full coverage of tuition and mandatory fees with scholarship and grant funding for Utah resident undergraduate students whose family household income and assets are each less than $100,000 per year. ... Qualified applicants must meet the following criteria: Be a Utah resident; Be a first-time, first-year student; Have an unweighted high school GPA of 3.5 or above; Have an annual family income and assets each totaling less than $100,000 as determined by the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA)
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
+$569K ahead at full price +$607K 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 Utah
Top 5 fields of study by bachelor's degrees awarded (most recent IPEDS Completions). Use this to see what University of Utah actually graduates — not just what it markets.
What those majors earn here
Median earnings 4 years after entry, by major — University of Utah's own graduates, not national averages.
| Major (CIP) | 4-yr earnings |
|---|---|
| Computer Science. | $137,329 |
| Computer Engineering. | $114,197 |
| Information Science/Studies. | $105,127 |
| Finance and Financial Management Services. | $100,793 |
| Chemical Engineering. | $98,215 |
| Biomedical/Medical Engineering. | $96,353 |
| Accounting and Related Services. | $94,253 |
| Electrical, Electronics, and Communications Engineering. | $91,361 |
| Mechanical Engineering. | $91,127 |
| Registered Nursing, Nursing Administration, Nursing Research and Clinical Nursing. | $86,243 |
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 University of Utah
Full multi-lens comparison: /ai-colleges →
Alternatives to University of Utah
Matched not just by selectivity, but by strategic goal — what a family actually decides on.
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Deciding on University of Utah?
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Get your child's odds at University of Utah →Score-odds calculator · Improve the score first · Find merit aid
Related reading
College costs · October 2026
Test scores · October 2026
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At a glance
JSON · Using this page with an AI assistantUniversity of Utah is a public four-year college in UT. It admitted 87% of applicants (22,996 applied, 2023). Test policy: Test-optional.
Middle 50% of enrolled first-years who submitted that test: SAT 1180–1398, ACT 22–29. 10% of enrolled first-years submitted an SAT score, 44% an ACT — these ranges describe students who submitted, not the whole class.
Cost: about $16,200 a year on average with aid, $25,557 a year at full price for in-state students.
Median earnings ten years after entry: $67,170 a year. Payoff, meaning ten years of that pay minus four years of cost: $606,900 ahead with aid, $569,472 ahead at full price.
Highest median earnings four years after the degree, by program: Computer Science ($137,329); Computer Engineering ($114,197); Information Science/Studies ($105,127).
Economic mobility (Opportunity Insights): 4% of students came from families in the bottom fifth of income, and 31% of those reached the top fifth as adults.
Aid pledge published by the college: families earning under $100,000 pay no tuition (UT residents).
High schools that publish a numbered matriculation list and name University of Utah: 77, 260 enrolled students between them — ranked by graduates per class year, most often Santa Margarita Catholic High School (26.0 per class year, 26 over 1 class year, Class of 2025); The Waterford School (22.0 per class year, 22 over 1 class year, Class of 2025); Mira Costa High School (18.0 per class year, 18 over 1 class year, Class of 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/university-of-utah.
High schools that publish a numbered list of college acceptances naming University of Utah: 12, 180 admissions between them — ranked by admissions per class year, most often Mira Costa High School (98.0 per class year, 98 over 1 class year, 2022-2026 College Admission Data, counted column "The first column represents the number of students admitted from the Class of 2026"); Archbishop Mitty High School (24.0 per class year, 24 over 1 class year, Class of 2026); Chaminade College Preparatory (19.0 per class year, 19 over 1 class year, Class of 2026). 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/university-of-utah.
Machine-readable version of this page: https://highschoolreach.com/colleges/university-of-utah.json
Questions families ask
What is University of Utah's acceptance rate? University of Utah is a public four-year college in UT. It admitted 87% of applicants (22,996 applied, 2023). Test policy: Test-optional.
Does University of Utah require the SAT or ACT? University of Utah is a public four-year college in UT. It admitted 87% of applicants (22,996 applied, 2023). Test policy: Test-optional.
What SAT or ACT scores do University of Utah students have? Middle 50% of enrolled first-years who submitted that test: SAT 1180–1398, ACT 22–29. 10% of enrolled first-years submitted an SAT score, 44% an ACT — these ranges describe students who submitted, not the whole class.
How much does University of Utah cost? Cost: about $16,200 a year on average with aid, $25,557 a year at full price for in-state students.
What do University of Utah graduates earn? Median earnings ten years after entry: $67,170 a year. Payoff, meaning ten years of that pay minus four years of cost: $606,900 ahead with aid, $569,472 ahead at full price.
Which majors at University of Utah pay the most? Highest median earnings four years after the degree, by program: Computer Science ($137,329); Computer Engineering ($114,197); Information Science/Studies ($105,127).
Does University of Utah offer free tuition or meet full need? Aid pledge published by the college: families earning under $100,000 pay no tuition (UT residents).
Which high schools send the most graduates to University of Utah? The high schools sending the most graduates per class year to University of Utah, from each school's own published list: Santa Margarita Catholic High School (26), The Waterford School (22), Mira Costa High School (18), Rowland Hall (14), Faith Lutheran Middle School & High School (11). 77 high schools' lists name University of Utah.
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Analysis: Test Prep Gurus (High School Reach, highschoolreach.com). These figures may be quoted with attribution to Test Prep Gurus.