Colorado School of Mines

Overview

Rankings

• #1 Best Colleges in Colorado
• #1 Best Bachelor's Programs in Colorado
• #1 Best Master's Programs in Colorado
• #1 Best Computer Science Colleges in Colorado
• #1 Best Data Science Colleges in Colorado
• #1 Colleges With the Highest Inventor Rate
• #1 Best Colleges for Low-Income Inventors
• #3 Colleges With the Best Loan Repayment Rates

Academics & Admissions

Is It Hard to Get Into Colorado School of Mines? Acceptance Rate & Requirements

Colorado School of Mines, located in Golden, Colorado, offers a realistic path to admission, with roughly 61% of applicants receiving an offer. Admitted students typically arrive with an average SAT score near 1,412. The graduation rate is roughly 81%.

Acceptance Rate

61%

Retention Rate

93%

SAT Average

1412

ACT Midpoint

31

SAT Range

1320–1480

ACT Range

29–33

Full-Time Faculty

73%

Faculty Salary (mo)

$14,000

Student–Faculty Ratio

17:1

Diversity Index

0.52

First-Gen Students

15%

Applicants

10,886

Admitted

6,314

Cost & Financial Aid

How Much Does It Cost to Attend Colorado School of Mines? Tuition, Net Price & Aid

Published tuition at Colorado School of Mines is $45,824, but few families pay that. The number to watch is net price, what students actually pay each year after federal grants and institutional scholarships. Here it averages about $28,690. Students from families earning under $30,000 typically pay closer to $16,849 after need-based grants. The median graduate leaves with about $23,000 in federal student loans.

In-State Tuition

$21,914

Out-of-State

$45,824

Avg Net Price

$28,690

Median Debt

$23,000

Pell Grant Rate

14%

Federal Loan Rate

32%

Students Like You

Tell us a little about yourself to see what students like you have typically experienced at Colorado School of Mines — the net price for your income, your admission odds, and the outcomes that follow. These are patterns from federal data, not predictions.

Graduate Outcomes

Is Colorado School of Mines Worth It? Graduate Earnings & ROI

Ten years out, alumni of Colorado School of Mines earn a median of $97,335, well above the national average for bachelor's degree holders.

6 Years After Entry

$82,950

8 Years

$90,777

10 Years

$97,335

Debt-to-Earnings

0.24x

Earning > $25K

90%

Social Mobility

Data: Raj Chetty's Mobility Report Card · 30M+ anonymized tax records

Does Colorado School of Mines Drive Upward Mobility? Economic Mobility & Low-Income Outcomes

Colorado School of Mines is a genuine engine of upward mobility. Its mobility rate, the share of students who start in the bottom income quintile and climb to the top, is 2.49%, among the highest in the country. Access is narrower: only about 3.9% of students come from the bottom income quintile, typical of more selective, higher-income institutions. Among bottom-quintile students who attend, roughly 64% go on to reach the top of the income ladder. The median family income of students sits near $111,500, a snapshot of the campus's socioeconomic mix.

Mobility Rate

2.49%

Bottom 20% → Top 20%

Success Rate

64.0%

If bottom 20% get in

From Bottom 20%

3.9%

Share of students

Parent Median Income

$151,489

today's $ (2015 cohort data)

Social Capital

Data: Opportunity Insights Social Capital Atlas

How Connected Is Colorado School of Mines? Social Capital & Cross-Class Networks

Social capital, the web of cross-class friendships that researchers link to long-run upward mobility, runs high at Colorado School of Mines. Its economic connectedness score is 1.78, where about 1.0 is the national norm. Its friending bias is low (-0.02), a sign that students from different economic backgrounds actually mix rather than self-segregate. Around 4% of students take part in civic and volunteering activity.

Economic Connectedness

1.78

Cross-class friendships

Friending Bias

-0.02

Lower = more inclusive

Volunteering Rate

4.3%

Support Ratio

1.00

Community support

Innovation & Knowledge Creation

Patents, inventors, and research influence · Opportunity Insights & Times Higher Education

Colorado School of Mines produces inventors at an exceptional rate — the top 7% of U.S. colleges, with 246 patents tied to its graduates, and ranks among research universities with a 23/100 research score.

Inventor Rate

4.36%

Top 7% nationally

Patents Produced

246

Linked to graduates

Patent Citations

1,114

Downstream influence

Research Score

23/100

Times Higher Ed

Academic Influence

64/100

Citation impact (THE)

Industry Engagement

99/100

Knowledge transfer (THE)

Inventors From Low-Income

4.71%

Bottom-20% families

Institutional Finances

Data: NCES IPEDS

Investment Income

$-12,692,174

Top Programs

The fields Colorado School of Mines awards the most degrees in, by share of completions. Where federal field-of-study data exists, we show what graduates in that major earned early in their careers. Each links to its degree guide — or see what someone with your income, scores, and major would pay and earn here in the Students Like You simulator.

• Engineering 74% $92,340 early-career
• Computer Science & IT 21% $93,833 early-career
• Mathematics & Statistics 3% $85,376 early-career
• Biology & Biomedical 1%
• Physical Sciences 1% $45,495 early-career
• Social Sciences 0% $95,455 early-career

Early-career median earnings by major (typically 1–2 years after completion, bachelor's level where available), in today's dollars (CPI-adjusted). Source: U.S. Dept. of Education College Scorecard field of study. Distinct from the school-wide 10-year median; suppressed for small programs.