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Clarkson University Data & Information Overview

46 awards Ranking Badges
Great Price Value for Your Money
75% Acceptance Rate
Get the facts about Clarkson University. Learn how it ranks, what majors it offers, how diverse it is, and much more.
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How Well Is Clarkson University Ranked?

#344 Best Colleges in Nation
#25 Best Colleges in NY
Engineering Technologies Highest Ranked Major

2024 Rankings

In its yearly rankings, College Factual analyzes over 2,000 colleges and universities to determine which ones are the best in a variety of categories, such as overall value, quality, diversity, which schools are the best for each major, and much more.

Clarkson University was awarded 46 badges in the 2024 rankings. The highest ranked major at the school is engineering technologies.

Explore Best Ranked Schools for You

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Overall Quality

Clarkson is ranked #344 out of 2,217 schools in the nation for overall quality on College Factual's 2024 Best Colleges list.

Clarkson is also ranked #25 out of 142 schools in New York.

See all of the rankings for Clarkson University.

Is It Hard to Get Into Clarkson?

75% Acceptance Rate
42% Of Accepted Are Women
51% Submit SAT Scores

Acceptance Rate

The acceptance rate at Clarkson University is 75%. That's higher than the rate at many schools, but still low enough to be considered somewhat selective. If you want to get in, you'll need good grades and to be able to show that Clarkson is a good fit for you.

Average Test Scores

About 51% of students accepted to Clarkson submitted their SAT scores. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing scores ranged between 580 and 680. Math scores were between 600 and 700.

SAT Reading and Writing Scores for Clarkson University  ( 580 to 680 )
200
800

SAT Math Scores for Clarkson University  ( 600 to 700 )
200
800
Clarkson received ACT scores from 11% of accepted students. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, ACT Composite scores ranged between 25 and 32.

ACT Composite Scores for Clarkson University  ( 25 to 32 )
1
36

Learn more about Clarkson University admissions.

Clarkson University Faculty

13 to 1 Student to Faculty
68% Full Time Teachers

Student to Faculty Ratio

With a student to faculty ratio of 13 to 1, Clarkson University is about average in this regard as the nationwide rate is 15 to 1. While this does not translate directly to class size, it's a good indicator of how much time professors will have to spend with their students on a one-on-one basis.

Percent of Full-Time Faculty

When estimating how much access students will have to their teachers, some people like to look at what percentage of faculty members are full time. This is because part-time teachers may not have as much time to spend on campus as their full-time counterparts.

The full-time faculty percentage at Clarkson University is 68%. This is higher than the national average of 47%.

Full-Time Faculty Percent  68 out of 100
0
100

Retention and Graduation Rates at Clarkson University

80% Freshmen Retention
61% On-Time Graduation Rate

Freshmen Retention Rate

The freshmen retention rate of 80% tells us that most first-year, full-time students like Clarkson University enough to come back for another year. This is a fair bit higher than the national average of 68%. That's certainly something to check off in the good column about the school.

Freshmen Retention Rate  80 out of 100
0
100

Graduation Rate

The on-time graduation rate for someone pursuing a bachelor's degree is typically four years. This rate at Clarkson for first-time, full-time students is 61%, which is better than the national average of 33.3%.

On-Time Graduation Rate  61 out of 100
0
100

Find out more about the retention and graduation rates at Clarkson University.

Clarkson University Undergraduate Student Diversity

2,845 Full-Time Undergraduates
15.8% Racial-Ethnic Minorities*
30.8% Percent Women

During the 2017-2018 academic year, there were 2,905 undergraduates at Clarkson with 2,845 being full-time and 60 being part-time.

How Much Does Clarkson University Cost?

$29,522 Net Price
71% Take Out Loans
$36,468 Total Student Loans
The overall average net price of Clarkson is $29,522. The affordability of the school largely depends on your financial need since net price varies by income group. See the table below for the net price for different income groups.

Net Price by Income Group for Clarkson

$0-30 K $30K-48K $48-75 $75-110K $110K +
$16,667 $21,402 $27,131 $29,869 $35,746

The net price is calculated by adding tuition, room, board and other costs and subtracting financial aid.Note that the net price is typically less than the published for a school. For more information on the sticker price of Clarkson, see our tuition and fees and room and board pages.

Student Loan Debt

While almost two-thirds of students nationwide take out loans to pay for college, the percentage may be quite different for the school you plan on attending. At Clarkson, approximately 71% of students took out student loans averaging $9,117 a year. That adds up to $36,468 over four years for those students.

The student loan default rate at Clarkson is 1.9%. This is significantly lower than the national default rate of 10.1%, which is a good sign that you'll be able to pay back your student loans.

Get more details about paying for Clarkson University.

How Much Money Do Clarkson Graduates Make?

$81,358 Avg Salary of Grads
High Earnings Boost
Although some majors pay more than others, students who graduate from Clarkson with a bachelor's degree go on to jobs where they make an average salary of $81,358 in their early years. That's great news for Clarkson students since it is 91% more than the average college graduate's salary of $42,485 per year.

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See which majors at Clarkson University make the most money.

Location of Clarkson University

New York State
2,845 Full-Time Undergraduates
Town Campus Setting
Clarkson University is a private not-for-profit institution situated in Potsdam, New York. Potsdam is a good match for students who enjoy small-town life.

Get more details about the location of Clarkson University.

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Contact details for Clarkson are given below.

Contact Details
Address: 8 Clarkson Ave, Potsdam, NY 13699
Phone: 315-268-6400
Website: https://www.clarkson.edu/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ClarksonUniversity
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ClarksonUniv

Clarkson University Majors

44 Majors With Completions
666 Undergraduate Degrees
511 Graduate Degrees
During the most recent year for which we have data, students from 44 majors graduated from Clarkson University. Of these students, 666 received undergraduate degrees and 511 graduated with a master's or doctor's degree. The following table lists the most popular undergraduate majors along with the average salary graduates from those majors make.

Most Popular Majors Bachelor’s Degrees Average Salary of Graduates
Mechanical Engineering 160 $66,506
Engineering-Related Fields 77 $65,187
Civil Engineering 56 $61,598
General Biology 41 $33,346
Electrical Engineering 39 $70,118
Computer Science 31 $67,495
Aerospace & Aeronautical Engineering 30 $65,036
Business Administration & Management 30 $60,400
Computer Engineering 29 $68,482
Entrepreneurial Studies 27 $42,560

Learn more about the majors offered at Clarkson University along with which ones have the highest average starting salaries.

Online Learning at Clarkson

22% Take At Least One Class Online
6% Take All Classes Online

Online courses area a great option for busy, working students as well as for those who have scheduling conflicts and want to study on their own time. As time goes by, expect to see more and more online learning options become available.

In 2020-2021, 859 students took at least one online class at Clarkson University. This is a decrease from the 3,329 students who took online classes the previous year.

Year Took at Least One Online Class Took All Classes Online
2020-2021 859 244
2019-2020 3,329 779
2018-2019 711 297
2017-2018 741 252
2016-2017 503 251

Learn more about online learning at Clarkson University.

If you’re considering Clarkson University, here are some more schools you may be interested in knowing more about.

Curious on how these schools stack up against Clarkson? Pit them head to head with College Combat, our free interactive tool that lets you compare college on the features that matter most to you!

Notes and References

Footnotes

*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.

References

More about our data sources and methodologies.

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