College profile
Willamette University
OR · Private nonprofit · Mid-size city · 4,107 applicants 2023
A parent's read
- The campus itself adds earnings power. Opportunity Insights tracks it: only about 4% of students arrive from the bottom income fifth, but those who do reach the top fifth by their 30s at a 52% rate — a strong sign the outcomes here are the campus, not just the intake.
- The 6× payoff headline requires aid. Without aid this runs ~$67,501/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 ~$25,121/yr — against that, ten years of median earnings run ~6× the cost. Run the college's own net-price calculator before anchoring on the multiple.
- 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.
Best for
- Solid academic profiles — the admitted-student bands above are within reach for strong students
- Students focused on Social Sciences (the school's signature program)
- Families wanting a small liberal-arts experience
The reality
- You'd be near the bottom of their admitted class if: SAT below 1220, or ACT below 27, or unweighted GPA below ~3.50 (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?
26% of enrolled first-years submitted an SAT score, 13% 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 Willamette University actually costs
Which side your family lands on isn't set by any national income line — it's set by Willamette 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
+$299K ahead at full price +$469K 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 Willamette University
Top 5 fields of study by bachelor's degrees awarded (most recent IPEDS Completions). Use this to see what Willamette University actually graduates — not just what it markets.
What those majors earn here
Median earnings 4 years after entry, by major — Willamette University's own graduates, not national averages.
| Major (CIP) | 4-yr earnings |
|---|---|
| Computer Science. | $100,650 |
| Physics. | $89,506 |
| Chemistry. | $79,592 |
| Communication and Media Studies. | $70,412 |
| Political Science and Government. | $63,407 |
| Economics. | $63,255 |
| Sports, Kinesiology, and Physical Education/Fitness. | $59,337 |
| Natural Resources Conservation and Research. | $54,657 |
| English Language and Literature, General. | $50,060 |
| Biology, General. | $45,197 |
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 Willamette University
Full multi-lens comparison: /ai-colleges →
Alternatives to Willamette 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 Willamette University?
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Get your child's odds at Willamette University →Score-odds calculator · Improve the score first · Find merit aid
Feeder high schools
Which high schools send graduates to Willamette University?
Enrolled — from the schools' matriculation lists
22 high schools publish a numbered matriculation list — where their graduates actually enrolled, counted, in the school's own School Profile — and name Willamette University on it. Between them they printed 48 enrolled graduates. Ranked by graduates per class year enrolling at Willamette 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.
and 12 more
Admitted — from the schools' acceptance lists
4 high schools publish a numbered list of college acceptances — where their graduates were admitted, not where they enrolled — and name Willamette University on it. Between them they printed 4 admissions. Ranked by admissions per class year to Willamette 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 26 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 assistantWillamette University is a private nonprofit four-year college in OR. It admitted 79% of applicants (4,107 applied, 2023). Test policy: Test-optional.
Middle 50% of enrolled first-years who submitted that test: SAT 1220–1430, ACT 27–32. 26% of enrolled first-years submitted an SAT score, 13% an ACT — these ranges describe students who submitted, not the whole class.
Cost: about $25,121 a year on average with aid, $67,501 a year at full price.
Median earnings ten years after entry: $56,911 a year. Payoff, meaning ten years of that pay minus four years of cost: $468,626 ahead with aid, $299,106 ahead at full price.
Highest median earnings four years after the degree, by program: Computer Science ($100,650); Physics ($89,506); Chemistry ($79,592).
Economic mobility (Opportunity Insights): 4% of students came from families in the bottom fifth of income, and 52% of those reached the top fifth as adults.
High schools that publish a numbered matriculation list and name Willamette University: 22, 48 enrolled students between them — ranked by graduates per class year, most often Punahou School (2.5 per class year, 10 over 4 class years, the past four years (2022 – 2025)); Kamehameha Schools (1.0 per class year, 7 over 7 class years, the last seven years, 2017-2023); Orange County School of the Arts (1.0 per class year, 1 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/willamette-university.
High schools that publish a numbered list of college acceptances naming Willamette University: 4, 4 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); Canterbury School-Fort Myers (1.0 per class year, 1 over 1 class year, Class of 2026); Lake Tahoe Prepatory School (1.0 per class year, 1 over 1 class year, 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/willamette-university.
Machine-readable version of this page: https://highschoolreach.com/colleges/willamette-university.json