How this school serves students from different economic backgrounds, including Pell students, first-generation pathways, and long-term mobility outcomes.
Bentley University admits about 45.1% of applicants. Among admitted students who submitted scores, the middle 50% scored between 1,280 and 1,430 on the SAT (interquartile range). Among enrolled undergraduates, 16.1% receive Pell Grants and 15.6% are first-generation college students — figures that reflect the institution's position as a selective, business-focused private university in the Boston metro. Transfer enrollment is modest, at 8.4%. Azimuth ranks Bentley University #755 for access among nonprofit four-year institutions. The access ranking reflects the structural reality of a selective private institution: the admission funnel is narrower than at broad-access peers, and the share of Pell-eligible and first-generation students enrolled is correspondingly smaller. As Azimuth's analysis of access versus outcomes at scale describes, the gap between what outcomes show an institution could deliver for mobility and what admission volume does deliver is the defining constraint on access rankings at selective schools. For students who do enroll, the outcomes are strong. The six-year graduation rate is 86.8%, and 88.8% of Pell-eligible students complete within that window — a completion gap that is narrow relative to many peer institutions. Median earnings for low-income graduates reach $83,200 on a historical ten-year Scorecard measure, placing this cohort in the 98.7 percentile for low-income graduate median earnings among nonprofit four-year institutions. Azimuth ranks Bentley University #378 for mobility among nonprofit four-year institutions. The mobility ranking reflects a pattern common to selective institutions with strong outcomes: low-income students who gain admission graduate at high rates and achieve earnings that rank near the top of the national distribution, but the scale of that impact is bounded by how many students the institution admits from Pell-eligible backgrounds in the first place.
Bentley University admits about 45.1% of applicants. Among admitted students who submitted scores, the middle 50% scored between 1,280 and 1,430 on the SAT (interquartile range). Among enrolled undergraduates, 16.1% receive Pell Grants and 15.6% are first-generation college students — figures that reflect the institution's position as a selective, business-focused private university in the Boston metro. Transfer enrollment is modest, at 8.4%. Azimuth ranks Bentley University #755 for access among nonprofit four-year institutions. The access ranking reflects the structural reality of a selective private institution: the admission funnel is narrower than at broad-access peers, and the share of Pell-eligible and first-generation students enrolled is correspondingly smaller. As Azimuth's analysis of access versus outcomes at scale describes, the gap between what outcomes show an institution could deliver for mobility and what admission volume does deliver is the defining constraint on access rankings at selective schools. For students who do enroll, the outcomes are strong. The six-year graduation rate is 86.8%, and 88.8% of Pell-eligible students complete within that window — a completion gap that is narrow relative to many peer institutions. Median earnings for low-income graduates reach $83,200 on a historical ten-year Scorecard measure, placing this cohort in the 98.7 percentile for low-income graduate median earnings among nonprofit four-year institutions. Azimuth ranks Bentley University #378 for mobility among nonprofit four-year institutions. The mobility ranking reflects a pattern common to selective institutions with strong outcomes: low-income students who gain admission graduate at high rates and achieve earnings that rank near the top of the national distribution, but the scale of that impact is bounded by how many students the institution admits from Pell-eligible backgrounds in the first place.
Bentley University admits about 45.1% of applicants. Among admitted students who submitted scores, the middle 50% scored between 1,280 and 1,430 on the SAT (interquartile range). Among enrolled undergraduates, 16.1% receive Pell Grants and 15.6% are first-generation college students — figures that reflect the institution's position as a selective, business-focused private university in the Boston metro. Transfer enrollment is modest, at 8.4%. Azimuth ranks Bentley University #755 for access among nonprofit four-year institutions. The access ranking reflects the structural reality of a selective private institution: the admission funnel is narrower than at broad-access peers, and the share of Pell-eligible and first-generation students enrolled is correspondingly smaller. As Azimuth's analysis of access versus outcomes at scale describes, the gap between what outcomes show an institution could deliver for mobility and what admission volume does deliver is the defining constraint on access rankings at selective schools. For students who do enroll, the outcomes are strong. The six-year graduation rate is 86.8%, and 88.8% of Pell-eligible students complete within that window — a completion gap that is narrow relative to many peer institutions. Median earnings for low-income graduates reach $83,200 on a historical ten-year Scorecard measure, placing this cohort in the 98.7 percentile for low-income graduate median earnings among nonprofit four-year institutions. Azimuth ranks Bentley University #378 for mobility among nonprofit four-year institutions. The mobility ranking reflects a pattern common to selective institutions with strong outcomes: low-income students who gain admission graduate at high rates and achieve earnings that rank near the top of the national distribution, but the scale of that impact is bounded by how many students the institution admits from Pell-eligible backgrounds in the first place.
