College Azimuth

Research brief & institution hub

Hope College

MIMedium private nonprofit institution · Overall rank #1255 nationally

Data snapshot Updated

Azimuth places Hope College in the 14th composite percentile among nonprofit four-year institutions.

Who it’s a good fit for

Hope College is a private nonprofit university in Holland, Michigan, where the degree mix leans toward Business, Education, and Psychology. Mobility is the strongest , though it sits modestly below average.

Graduates earn less than predicts for students like them. The part the model attributes to the factors it measures adds to expected earnings, while the part it cannot explain subtracts from them.

Most graduates are estimated to go into work rather than further study. Pell recipients complete at a rate below the entering cohort as a whole.

The lowest income band pays well under the published cost, while the highest band pays closer to it, and affordability is below the levels seen at many peers. The admission rate is above the median for comparable schools.

A student drawn to the largest programs should know that the best-paid ones, like Computer and Information Sciences and Accounting, are much smaller.

Hope College at a glance

Admissions and outcomes

Admission rate[1]
79.2%
Six-year completion[2]
79.9%
Four-year earnings[3]
$60,573

Cost and family borrowing

Average annual net price · $48–75K family income[6]
$18,206
Median student debt[4]
$26,800
Median Parent PLUS debt[7]
$48,059

Hope College rankings: how Azimuth assesses value[5]

Hope College is a private nonprofit university in Holland, Michigan, enrolling 3,288 undergraduates. Its composite standing falls in the lower portion of the Azimuth ranking, with the four pillars spread across a wide range.

Hope College admits 79.2% of applicants, a higher rate than the 71.2% median for comparable institutions of the same type and size. Of students who start full time, 88.4% return for a second year and 80.0% finish within six years.

Both figures run above the peer medians of 83.4% and 68.8%. An estimated 5.6% of entrants arrive as transfers or part-time students, so the six-year rate describes the experience of the large majority who began here.

Mobility is the strongest of the four pillars, and affordability the weakest. Return and access sit between them, closer to the bottom of the field than the top.

The shape is a private nonprofit where students finish at rates above the peer set, while affordability and access are the lowest-scoring pillars.

Hope College has its strongest pillar in mobility, while affordability is its weakest. Among nonprofit four-year institutions, mobility stands in the 43rd percentile and return in the 37th percentile.

Access is in the 19th percentile, and affordability is in the 14th percentile. Mobility is the clearest positive in a pillar profile where the other measures do not match it.

The middle 50% of submitted SAT scores fell between 1,100 and 1,340, and the middle 50% of submitted ACT scores fell between 25 and 31. 16.5% of undergraduates receive Pell Grants.

Those Pell recipients complete at 70.2%, below the overall rate by 9.8 percentage points (80.0%). Azimuth ranks Hope College #1,193 for access among nonprofit four-year institutions, a position that coincides with that completion gap.

Azimuth ranks the college #841 for mobility among nonprofit four-year institutions. Four years after completion, graduates earn about $11,239 less than the model expects for similar students.

How value-added outcomes are assessed · How to interpret program rankings

Hope College rankings in context
GeographyRank
National#1,255

Azimuth overall value rankings within each geographic comparison group.

National pillar percentiles

Economic mobility
National percentile: 43
Access & reach
National percentile: 19
Affordability
National percentile: 14
Return on investment
National percentile: 37

01 / Hope College briefing

Hope College cost & financial aid[6][7]

The published cost sets a high starting point at Hope College: $55,646 for the standard budget. Tuition and fees account for $41,970, with room and board listed at $12,950.

For aid recipients, the average net price, what aid recipients pay after grants and scholarships, is $27,182. Financial aid reduces the published cost by $28,464 on average.

At comparable institutions (same type and size), the peer median net price is $27,371, and Hope College’s average is below it by $189. Azimuth ranks the university #1,211 for affordability among nonprofit four-year institutions.

The higher peer comparison and affordability rank point to a less favorable cost picture.

The published cost of attendance is $55,646, and affordability is the weakest of the four pillars for Hope College. Azimuth ranks the university #1,211 for affordability among nonprofit four-year institutions.

After grants and scholarships, the average net price for aid recipients from families earning under $30,000 is $17,606, for those earning $48,001 to $75,000 it is $18,206, and for those earning over $110,000 it is $32,754. The spread between the lowest and highest bands is $15,148.

Aid covers about 51% of the published cost for the average aid recipient, bringing the across all bands to $27,182. That figure is $189 below the median of $27,371 for comparable institutions (same type and size).

Borrowers who finish carry a median of $26,800 in federal student loans, which is $2,601 above the peer median of $24,199. 95.0% of federal aid recipients take federal loans.

Parents who borrow hold a separate median of $48,059 in Parent PLUS loans. If repaid over ten years, the median federal student debt corresponds to an estimated payment of $305 a month.

Your family income

Choose a household income range to see estimated net price.

Reported average annual net price · $48–75K$18,206

After grants and scholarships. Your aid offer may differ.

Averages within each income band; individual aid packages vary.

Borrowing and repayment at Hope College

Federal borrowing is widespread at Hope College, with 95.0% of federal aid recipients taking federal loans. For borrowers who complete, median federal student loan debt is $26,800.

Comparable institutions (same type and size) have a peer median federal debt of $24,199, so the college's median sits above that figure by $2,601. Parent PLUS borrowers are a separate parent-borrower population, with median borrowing of $48,059.

At Hope College, mobility is the strongest Azimuth pillar, but the investment picture has cautions. For federally aided completers who are working and not enrolled, median earnings are $60,573 four years after completion.

Azimuth places that measure in the 53rd percentile among nonprofit four-year institutions. Graduates earn about $11,239 less than the model expects for similar students.

Earnings beyond expectations, the gap between what graduates earn and what the model expects for similar students, sit in the 16th percentile among nonprofit four-year institutions. The earnings scenarios place a downside case at $47,229, an upside case at $76,000, and the typical scenario at the observed median earnings.

Borrowers’ median federal student loan debt at completion is $26,800, above the $24,199 median for comparable institutions (same type and size). That debt corresponds to an estimated payment of $305 a month if repaid over ten years.

Earnings below the model’s expectation and debt above the peer median point in the same direction.

For the separate parent-borrower population, median Parent PLUS borrowing was $48,059. Among student borrowers who completed, median federal student loan debt corresponds to an estimated payment of $305 a month if repaid over ten years.

How Financial GPS measures payment burden · The four risk-and-reward zones

Financial GPS

What does repayment look like?

Institution median student debt
$26,800
Institution Parent PLUS debt
$48,059

Federal loans only; private or institutional loans aren’t included.

Estimated student payment · monthly
$305/mo
Estimated Parent PLUS payment · monthly
$611/mo

Payments use school-wide median balances, not a specific major’s.

Payment assumptions

Payments are 10-year standard payments on the median balance, before loan fees, used as a yardstick. Rates for newly issued loans may differ, and loans made after July 1, 2026 can repay over a longer term; existing loans keep their original fixed rates.

Explore your own numbers in Financial GPS
Read the full cost & aid brief

02 / Hope College briefing

Hope College career outcomes & earnings[3][8][9]

The return picture at Hope College is mixed, with Azimuth placing its return pillar in the 37th percentile among nonprofit four-year institutions. On earnings beyond expectations, the gap between graduate earnings and the model’s expectation for similar students, graduates earn about $11,239 less than the model expects for similar students.

That measure sits in the 16th percentile among nonprofit four-year institutions. The part the model attributes to the factors it measures (field of study, enrollment and the local labor market) adds $3,870.

The part it attributes to a remainder it does not explain subtracts $15,109. Median earnings are $60,573 four years after completion, in the 53rd percentile among nonprofit four-year institutions according to Azimuth.

The peer median, the middle value for comparable institutions (same type and size), is $68,250, leaving Hope College $7,677 below it. The return picture is mixed: earnings sit below peers and below the model’s expectation.

For Hope College, median earnings are $60,573 four years after completion among federally aided completers who are working and not enrolled. Azimuth places those earnings in the 53rd percentile among nonprofit four-year institutions; the measure draws on an earnings cohort of 749 completers.

Earnings beyond expectations, the gap between what graduates earn and what the model expects for similar students, offer a second lens. Graduates earn about $11,239 less than the model expects for similar students.

Earnings scenarios based on the program mix place typical earnings at $60,573, with a downside scenario of $47,229 and an upside scenario of $76,000. An estimated 33.1% of graduates continue to graduate study, a figure estimated from the program mix.

The scenario range and graduate-study estimate show that postcollege paths vary across the program mix.

Hope College graduates earn a median of $60,573 four years after completion, placing earnings in the 53rd percentile among nonprofit four-year institutions. The college is $7,677 below the $68,250 median for comparable institutions (same type and size).

Azimuth ranks the college #930 for return among nonprofit four-year institutions. Graduates earn about $11,239 less than the model expects for similar students.

That puts the earnings-beyond-expectations gap at the 16th percentile. The part the model attributes to the factors it measures (field of study, enrollment and the local labor market) adds $3,870.

The part it attributes to a remainder it does not explain subtracts $15,109. Within the measured factors, the STEM component specifically adds $1,856.

Earnings scenarios, estimated from the program mix, range from $47,229 on the downside to $76,000 on the upside, with a typical outcome of $60,573. An estimated 33.1% of graduates continue to graduate study, based on the program mix.

The program mix includes business, education and psychology as the largest fields, alongside engineering, nursing and a smaller computer science program.

Program choice makes the earnings outlook at Hope College broad rather than uniform. Earnings scenarios range from $47,229 in the downside case to $76,000 in the upside case, with $60,573 as the typical scenario; these are scenarios estimated from the program mix.

Across 17 programs with published earnings data, Computer and Information Sciences has median earnings of $92,116 four years after completion, Accounting has $86,253, and Engineering has $82,513. Those program figures show why the modeled range is wide.

The value question at Hope College is whether the debt load is manageable given that graduates earn about $11,239 less than the model expects for similar students. The median federal student debt for borrowers who finish is $26,800, which is $2,601 above the $24,199 median for comparable institutions (same type and size).

That debt corresponds to an estimated payment of $305 a month if repaid over ten years. The published cost of attendance is $55,646.

After grants and scholarships, the average net price for aid recipients is $27,182, which is $189 below the peer median. Aid covers about 51% of the published cost for the average aid recipient, but this is an average rather than a personal quote.

Parents who borrow hold a separate median of $48,059 in Parent PLUS loans. The net price spread between the lowest and highest income bands is $15,148, so a family's actual cost depends heavily on where they sit on the income scale.

What explains value-added earnings?
Program & institutional factors The part attributed to observed institutional characteristics.
+$3,870
Unexplained remainder What remains after the model’s observed factors.
-$15,109
Total modeled value added The modeled difference from expected earnings.
-$11,239

These are statistical model components, not proven causal effects; the remainder is not a direct measure of teaching quality.

Read the full outcomes brief

03 / Hope College briefing

Hope College acceptance rate & admissions[1][10][11]

Hope College admitted 79.2% of applicants in the reported entering class, which describes the share receiving admission decisions in that applicant pool. That rate is above the median of 71.2% for comparable institutions (same type and size).

SAT: approximate enrolled-student range
Admission rate
79.2%
Approximate lower endpoint
1100
Reported average
1249
Approximate upper endpoint
1340

Enrolled students who submitted scores. This range is not an admission cutoff. The endpoints add section percentiles; they are not verified composite-score percentiles. A separate SAT-equivalent average is not plotted as a median. Source: College Scorecard; sum of section 25th/75th percentiles; enrolled score-submitters.

Read the full admissions brief

04 / Hope College briefing

What are the largest majors at Hope College?[12]

At Hope College, program earnings differ enough that the field chosen matters for the return picture. Computer and Information Sciences has median earnings of $92,116 four years after completion, with 13 degrees awarded.

Accounting records $86,253 in median earnings and awarded 15 degrees. Engineering combines 52 degrees awarded with median earnings of $82,513 four years after completion.

At a more moderate earnings level, Business Administration and Management awarded 120 degrees and reports $65,755. The higher-earning technical and accounting fields sit apart from the larger business program, making field-level earnings more informative than a single schoolwide figure.

Program-level earnings give a more varied view than a single collegewide median. Hope College publishes earnings for 17 bachelor's fields. The differences among these fields make the choice of major central to the earnings picture.

The program mix at Hope College is broad, with Business leading at 17.2% of bachelor's degrees awarded, followed by Education at 13.6% and Psychology at 10.3%. The university has 17 programs with published four-year earnings data.

The largest single program is Business Administration and Management, at 120 degrees awarded, with Psychology next at 84 and Engineering at 52. The highest-earning program is a much smaller one: Computer and Information Sciences graduates earn $92,116 four years after completion, from 13 degrees awarded.

Accounting follows at $86,253, with 15 degrees awarded and a benchmark ratio of 1.13x against the national median for its field. Engineering, the third-largest program, also places among the top earners at $82,513, while Nursing graduates earn $75,738 from 49 degrees awarded.

The pattern is one of concentration: the largest program, Business Administration and Management, is also the fifth-highest-earning, and the highest-earning programs are small. A student drawn to the social sciences should know that the largest departments are not the best-paid ones. Across all fields, 21.2% of degrees awarded are in STEM.

Four-year earnings · six largest reported fields
Business Administration, Management and Operations 120 degrees awarded
$65,755
Psychology, General 84 degrees awarded
$52,980
Engineering, General 52 degrees awarded
$82,513
Registered Nursing, Nursing Administration, Nursing Research and Clinical Nursing 49 degrees awarded
$75,738
Sports, Kinesiology, and Physical Education/Fitness 44 degrees awarded
$53,340
Teacher Education and Professional Development, Specific Subject Areas 40 degrees awarded
$49,627

Fields selected by reported completions. Counts describe credentials awarded, not unique students or the earnings sample. Bars show median four-year earnings.

Read the full majors brief

05 / Hope College briefing

How does Hope College serve students from different backgrounds?

Mobility is Hope College's strongest Azimuth pillar, with a position in the 43rd percentile among nonprofit four-year institutions. For the first-time full-time cohort, the six-year graduation rate is 80.0%, while Pell recipients complete within six years at 70.2%, below the overall rate by 9.8 percentage points.

Graduates earn about $11,239 less than the model expects for similar students. Earnings beyond expectations, the gap between what graduates earn and what the model expects for similar students, sits in the 16th percentile.

The mobility picture is mixed: Pell completion trails overall completion, and modeled earnings fall short of expectations.

At Hope College in Holland, Michigan, access begins with a 79.2% admission rate and 3,288 undergraduates. Pell Grants reach 16.5% of undergraduates, and an estimated 5.6% enter as transfers or part-time students.

Azimuth places the access pillar in the 19th percentile among nonprofit four-year institutions. These entry measures give applicants different views of access in the current snapshot.

06 / Hope College briefing

What colleges are similar to Hope College?[15]

Azimuth groups alternatives by admissions, location, cost and earnings, then orders candidates within each group. Peer earnings use the matched four-year cohort. How matching works.

A shortlist for different decisions

Choose a row to compare the figures with Hope College.

Admissions peerWisconsin Lutheran College78.2% admitted
Comparison with Hope College
MeasureHope CollegeWisconsin Lutheran College
Peer earnings · 4 years$60,573$57,728-$2,845 vs Hope College
Average annual net price$27,182$23,245-$3,937 vs Hope College · lower cost
Admission rate79.2%78.2%
Higher-admission alternativeCentral Michigan University89.8% admitted
Comparison with Hope College
MeasureHope CollegeCentral Michigan University
Peer earnings · 4 years$60,573$61,298+$725 vs Hope College
Average annual net price$27,182$17,597-$9,585 vs Hope College · lower cost
Admission rate79.2%89.8%
Explore Central Michigan University →
Nearby alternativeGrand Valley State UniversityNearby option · MI
Comparison with Hope College
MeasureHope CollegeGrand Valley State University
Peer earnings · 4 years$60,573$60,491-$82 vs Hope College
Average annual net price$27,182$16,317-$10,865 vs Hope College · lower cost
Admission rate79.2%83.0%
Explore Grand Valley State University →
Higher-earnings alternativeSaint Mary's College$69,406 earnings
Comparison with Hope College
MeasureHope CollegeSaint Mary's College
Peer earnings · 4 years$60,573$69,406+$8,833 vs Hope College
Average annual net price$27,182$25,292-$1,890 vs Hope College · lower cost
Admission rate79.2%76.0%
Explore Saint Mary's College →
Lower-cost alternativeTrinity International University-Illinois$2,835 average net price
Comparison with Hope College
MeasureHope CollegeTrinity International University-Illinois
Peer earnings · 4 years$60,573$51,985-$8,588 vs Hope College
Average annual net price$27,182$2,835-$24,347 vs Hope College · lower cost
Admission rate79.2%100.0%
Similar profileCalvin UniversityMatched across several measures
Comparison with Hope College
MeasureHope CollegeCalvin University
Peer earnings · 4 years$60,573$60,889+$316 vs Hope College
Average annual net price$27,182$22,992-$4,190 vs Hope College · lower cost
Admission rate79.2%70.9%
Explore Calvin University →

Each school is the first-ranked match in its category, not a recommendation across every measure. The same college may lead more than one category. Figures use the matching snapshot; earnings reflect the matched four-year cohort. — means unavailable.

Read the full similar schools brief

Data scope & methodology

Structured payloads generated Governed hub narrative Governed spoke corpus

Four-year earnings describe cohorts of completers. Figures for other horizons describe different cohorts and are not joined into a career-growth projection.

Azimuth's overall rank and pillar percentiles come from the school profile. Absolute pillar ranks, city, enrollment and official-site links are shown only when structured data supplies them.

Detailed earnings, cost, admissions and program values come from the endpoint responsible for each measure. Missing values are not replaced with zero. Value-added estimates are model associations, not causal effects.

Figures are refreshed with each data release, at most a quarter apart. The underlying source dates can be earlier than the release.

Explanatory text is AI-assisted drafting checked against those figures; it is not an additional data source.

Analysis and methodology by Daniel Rogers, founder of College Azimuth.

Read the ranking methodology, data definitions and limitations · About College Azimuth

Read the analysis behind value-added earnings and the change to four-year graduate earnings. These articles are published on collegeazimuth.com.

Data notes & source fields

Scorecard field codes identify the underlying measure; Azimuth-derived values are labeled separately. Snapshot dates are not measurement years. Source populations and reporting periods differ across measures. Field definitions are in the U.S. Department of Education · College Scorecard documentation; notes with a different source link it below.

  1. Admission rate. Reported applicants admitted; not a transfer-specific or individual admission probability.

    Source fields: ADM_RATE

  2. Six-year completion. First-time, full-time students completing at the institution within 150% of normal time, typically six years for a bachelor’s degree.

    Source fields: C150_4

  3. Four-year institutional earnings. Median earnings of graduates in the reported cohort who are working and not enrolled, four years after completion.

    Source fields: MD_EARN_WNE_4YR

  4. Median federal student debt. Federal student-loan debt among completers in the reported borrowing cohort. Excludes Parent PLUS and is not total debt across all students.

    Source fields: GRAD_DEBT_MDN

  5. National, regional and state ranks; pillar percentiles; major ranks. Derived scores within the stated eligible comparison set, not raw Scorecard fields. Major ranks compare institutions within a field; their denominators differ.

    Source fields: Azimuth rankings

    College Azimuth · Ranking methodology

  6. Annual net price by family income. Average annual cost after grants and scholarships for the eligible first-time, full-time aid-recipient cohort. Public-school figures reflect in-state tuition. Includes living costs; these are averages, not medians or individual offers.

    Source fields: NPT4_PUB/PRIV; NPT41_PUB/PRIV through NPT45_PUB/PRIV

  7. Parent PLUS debt, payments and GPS illustration. Stored payments use Financial GPS loan and repayment assumptions. The adjustable spectrum applies the published framework to annual student payments divided by earnings minus an expense allowance; its initial allowance uses the frozen 2024 framework baseline. It is an illustration rather than a school rating. Parent PLUS uses the completer median where available, otherwise the all-borrower median; these describe different borrowing populations.

    Source fields: PLUS_DEBT_ALL_COMP_MD; fallback PLUS_DEBT_ALL_MD; Azimuth Financial GPS calculations

    College Azimuth · Financial GPS methodology

  8. Downside and upside earnings; yellow band. The band spans the modeled lower and higher scenarios. It is not the P25–P75 interval for individual graduates. The median marker is the separately reported institutional median.

    Source fields: Azimuth modeled program-mix scenarios

    College Azimuth · Earnings scenario methodology

  9. Value added and its components. Observed-factor attribution plus the unexplained remainder equals total modeled value added. These are associations, not proven causal effects; the remainder is not a direct measure of teaching quality.

    Source fields: Azimuth statistical model

    College Azimuth · Value-added methodology

  10. SAT score range and reported midpoint. Reported scores of enrolled score-submitters, not admission cutoffs. The midpoint field is not necessarily the middle of the displayed range.

    Source fields: SATVR25 + SATMT25; SATVR75 + SATMT75; SAT_AVG

  11. First-year retention. Retention of the reported full-time cohort at four-year institutions.

    Source fields: RET_FT4

  12. Program earnings, completion counts and major-mix dots. Included bachelor’s programs have at least five reported completions. Counts are aggregated credentials, not unique people or an earnings sample. Major-mix dots group those counts by field of study; excluded programs are not zero activity.

    Source fields: EARN_MDN_4YR; IPEDSCOUNT1; CIPCODE

    College Scorecard · Field-of-study technical documentation

  13. Pell recipients. Share of undergraduates receiving a Pell Grant in the reported academic year.

    Source fields: PCTPELL

  14. Entering students outside the first-time, full-time group. This is not an observed transfer-in rate. It includes part-time entrants and other entering-student attendance patterns.

    Source fields: 1 − PFTFTUG1_EF

  15. Peer earnings and signed differences. Differences are peer minus this school, from the same matching snapshot. A positive earnings difference does not mean the peer is better on every measure.

    Source fields: Azimuth peer model using MD_EARN_WNE_4YR

    College Azimuth · Comparison methodology

How to interpret program rankings