Sarah Lawrence College

Overview

Rankings

• #25 Best Colleges for Building Social Capital

Academics & Admissions

Is It Hard to Get Into Sarah Lawrence College? Acceptance Rate & Requirements

As a private institution in Bronxville, New York, Sarah Lawrence College offers a realistic path to admission, with roughly 62% of applicants receiving an offer. Admitted students typically arrive with an average SAT score near 1,366. The graduation rate is roughly 71%.

Acceptance Rate

62%

Retention Rate

87%

SAT Average

1366

ACT Midpoint

31

SAT Range

1240–1430

ACT Range

28–31

Full-Time Faculty

33%

Faculty Salary (mo)

$11,235

Student–Faculty Ratio

11:1

Diversity Index

0.60

First-Gen Students

11%

Applicants

5,186

Admitted

2,587

Inside the Admissions Office

School-reported Common Data Set · 2024-25

The acceptance rate tells you how hard Sarah Lawrence College is to get into. Its Common Data Set tells you what happens once you are admitted: how many students say yes, how many arrived without test scores, and whether applying early tilts the odds. 15% of admitted students go on to enroll here, making it a school most admitted students ultimately pass on.

Yield Rate

15%

of admits enroll

Submitted SAT

9%

of enrolled freshmen

Submitted ACT

4%

of enrolled freshmen

Early Decision Admit Rate

49.5%

vs 61.7% overall

Cost & Financial Aid

How Much Does It Cost to Attend Sarah Lawrence College? Tuition, Net Price & Aid

Published tuition at Sarah Lawrence College is $66,862, 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 $41,437. Students from families earning under $30,000 typically pay closer to $29,876 after need-based grants. The median graduate leaves with about $27,000 in federal student loans.

In-State Tuition

$66,862

Out-of-State

$66,862

Avg Net Price

$41,437

Median Debt

$27,000

Pell Grant Rate

12%

Federal Loan Rate

40%

Students Like You

Tell us a little about yourself to see what students like you have typically experienced at Sarah Lawrence College — 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 Sarah Lawrence College Worth It? Graduate Earnings & ROI

Ten years out, alumni of Sarah Lawrence College earn a median of $53,603, roughly in line with the national average for college graduates.

6 Years After Entry

$34,251

8 Years

$43,274

10 Years

$53,603

Debt-to-Earnings

0.5x

Earning > $25K

57%

Social Mobility

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

Does Sarah Lawrence College Drive Upward Mobility? Economic Mobility & Low-Income Outcomes

Sarah Lawrence College 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 1.22%, well above the typical college. Access is narrower: only about 3.5% of students come from the bottom income quintile, typical of more selective, higher-income institutions. Among bottom-quintile students who attend, roughly 34.5% go on to reach the top of the income ladder. The median family income of students sits near $146,500, a snapshot of the campus's socioeconomic mix.

Mobility Rate

1.22%

Bottom 20% → Top 20%

Success Rate

34.5%

If bottom 20% get in

From Bottom 20%

3.5%

Share of students

Parent Median Income

$199,042

today's $ (2015 cohort data)

Social Capital

Data: Opportunity Insights Social Capital Atlas

How Connected Is Sarah Lawrence College? Social Capital & Cross-Class Networks

Social capital, the web of cross-class friendships that researchers link to long-run upward mobility, runs high at Sarah Lawrence College. Its economic connectedness score is 1.87, where about 1.0 is the national norm. Its friending bias is low (-0.01), a sign that students from different economic backgrounds actually mix rather than self-segregate. Around 17% of students take part in civic and volunteering activity.

Economic Connectedness

1.87

Cross-class friendships

Friending Bias

-0.01

Lower = more inclusive

Volunteering Rate

17.2%

Support Ratio

1.00

Community support

Institutional Finances

Data: NCES IPEDS

Federal Grants

$2,695,865

Investment Income

$3,874,985

Top Programs

The fields Sarah Lawrence College 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.

• Humanities 100% $33,796 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.