Clarkson University Overview

Located in Potsdam, New York, Clarkson University is a private not-for-profit institution. The charming, small-town atmosphere of Potsdam draws many to the area.

What Is Clarkson University Known For?

• Students at Clarkson have an easier time paying back their loans. The school's student loan default rate is only 2%, compared to the national rate of 10.1%.
• The highest award offered at Clarkson is the doctor's degree.
• In 2019-2020, 68% of the faculty were full-time.
• After graduation, Clarkson bachelor's degree recipients go on to jobs where they make $81,358 a year. That's about 99% more than their peers at other schools.
• It takes the average Clarkson student 4.2 years to graduate. This is pretty good when compared to the national rate of 4.4 years.

Clarkson University Rankings

Clarkson is ranked #271 out of 2,018 schools in the nation for overall quality on our 2023 Best Colleges list. This puts it in the top 15% of all schools in the nation. Clarkson also holds the #17 spot on the Best Colleges in New York ranking.

These rankings may look different from those published by other outlets, because we use an outcomes-based approach rather than a subjective one. We get our data from a number of places, including the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) and the College Scorecard. For more information, check out our rankings and methodology page.

Clarkson has also been awarded the following overall awards by our latest rankings.

Rank	Ranking Name	Share
#198	Best Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It

Program Level Awards

These are highlights of some of the most noteworthy awards granted to specific programs at Clarkson.

Rank	Ranking Name	Share
#1	Most Popular Civil Engineering Graduate Certificate Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#7	Best Engineering-Related Fields Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#16	Most Popular Engineering Technologies Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#23	Best Engineering Technologies Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#28	Best Entrepreneurial Studies Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#36	Best Biological & Biomedical Sciences Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#121	Best Business Administration & Management Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#122	Best General Biology Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#137	Best Business, Management & Marketing Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#140	Best Accounting Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It

Awards From Around the Web

The following table lists some notable awards Clarkson has earned from around the web.

Rank	Ranking Name	Source
#12	Best Engineering-Related Fields Graduate Degree Schools	College Factual
#22	Best Engineering Technologies Schools	College Factual
#34	Best Entrepreneurial Studies Schools	College Factual
#85	Best Health & Medical Administrative Services Schools	College Factual
#154	Best Business Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Business Degree Central
#171	Best Allied Health Professions Schools	College Factual

Where Is Clarkson University?

Contact details for Clarkson are given below.

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

How Do I Get Into Clarkson?

You can apply to Clarkson online at: https://www.clarkson.edu/apply-now

Admission Requirements for Clarkson

Submission	Required?
High School GPA	required
High School Rank	required
High School Transcript	required
College Prep Program	recommended
Recommendations	required
SAT or ACT Scores	required
TOEFL	required

How Hard Is It To Get Into Clarkson?

With an acceptance rate of 78%, Clarkson may not be as selective as some schools, but you should not take admittance for granted. Be sure to submit the best application you can.

Approximately 60% of accepted students are men and 40% are women. The acceptance rate for men is 80%, and the acceptance rate for women is 76%.

Average Test Scores

About 86% 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 560 and 660. Math scores were between 590 and 690.

Clarkson received ACT scores from 31% of accepted students. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, ACT English scores ranged between 22 and 29. Math scores were between 25 and 30. Composite scores were between 24 and 30.

Can I Afford Clarkson University?

The overall average net price of Clarkson is $40,065. The affordability of the school largely depends on your financial need since net price varies by income group.

The net price is calculated by adding tuition, room, board and other costs and subtracting financial aid.

Student Loan Debt

Almost 66% of college students who graduated with the class of 2018 took out student loans, but that percentage varies from school to school. At Clarkson, approximately 71% of students took out student loans averaging $10,534 a year. That adds up to $42,136 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.

Clarkson University Undergraduate Student Diversity

There are 2,905 undergraduate students at Clarkson, with 2,845 being full-time and 60 being part-time.

There are also 1,120 graduate students at the school.

Gender Diversity

Of the 2,845 full-time undergraduates at Clarkson, 69% are male and 31% are female.

Racial-Ethnic Diversity

The racial-ethnic breakdown of Clarkson University students is as follows.

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Grads
Asian	107
Black or African American	82
Hispanic or Latino	143
White	2,253
International Students	73
Other Races/Ethnicities	187

Geographic Diversity

New York students aren't the only ones who study at Clarkson University. At this time, 27 states are represented by the student population at the school.

Over 58 countries are represented at Clarkson. The most popular countries sending students to the school are China, Canada, and India.

Online Learning at Clarkson University

In 2019-2020, 798 students took at least one online class at the school.

The following chart shows how the online learning population at Clarkson has changed over the last few years.

Online Affordability Rankings of Clarkson

During the most recent year for which we have data, the full-time undergraduate tuition at Clarkson University was $52,724 for both in-state and out-of-state students. The following table shows how Clarkson is ranked for affordability for both in-state and out-of-state students among colleges and universities that are not mostly online.

Major	Tuition for In-State Students	Tuition for Out-of-State Students
Engineering Science	#8	#8
Physics	#10	#10
Chemistry	#10	#10
Chemical Engineering	#25	#25
Environmental Engineering	#25	#25
Natural Resources Conservation	#34	#34
Mathematics	#40	#40
Mathematics & Statistics	#49	#49
Natural Resources & Conservation	#52	#52
Computer Science	#58	#58
Civil Engineering	#64	#64

Online Growth Rankings of Clarkson

The average growth rate over the last four years of online students at Clarkson University was 16.9%. This is the #1,149 largest growth rate of all schools that are only partially online. This refers to all students at Clarkson regardless of major.

When we speak of partially online, we are referring to schools whose online population is less than 50% of its total student body. Mostly online refers to those with online populations greater than or equal to 50%.

Clarkson University Undergraduate Concentrations

The table below shows the number of awards for each concentration.

Major	Bachelor’s	Graduate Certificate	Master’s	Doctor’s	TOTAL
Mechanical Engineering	160	0	24	5	189
Engineering-Related Fields	77	0	89	0	166
Electrical Engineering	39	19	27	2	87
Business Administration & Management	30	0	54	0	84
Civil Engineering	56	13	5	4	78
Chemical Engineering	42	0	1	5	48
Rehabilitation & Therapeutic Professions	0	0	17	25	42
General Biology	41	0	0	0	41
Health & Medical Administrative Services	0	1	39	0	40
Computer Science	31	0	4	2	37
Aerospace & Aeronautical Engineering	30	0	0	0	30
Allied Health Professions	0	0	30	0	30
Computer Engineering	29	0	0	0	29
Environmental Engineering	24	0	4	1	29
Entrepreneurial Studies	27	0	0	0	27
General Psychology	27	0	0	0	27
Teacher Education Grade Specific	0	0	24	0	24
Information Science	0	0	20	0	20
Other Engineering	0	6	14	0	20
Accounting	18	0	0	0	18
Bioethics/Medical Ethics	0	6	12	0	18
General Business/Commerce	0	17	0	0	17
Physics	9	0	4	1	14
Other Education	0	13	0	0	13
Mathematics	8	0	3	2	13
Management Information Systems	10	0	0	0	10
Biochemistry, Biophysics & Molecular Biology	9	0	0	0	9
Teaching English or French	0	0	9	0	9
Chemistry	3	0	0	5	8
Communication & Media Studies	7	0	0	0	7
Other Multi/Interdisciplinary Studies	7	0	0	0	7
Computer Software & Applications	5	0	0	0	5
Political Science & Government	5	0	0	0	5
Biotechnology	0	0	4	0	4
Teacher Education Subject Specific	0	0	3	0	3
Economics	3	0	0	0	3
History	2	0	0	0	2
Biological & Physical Science	0	0	2	0	2
Natural Resources Conservation	2	0	0	0	2
General Social Sciences	2	0	0	0	2
Pharmacology & Toxicology	1	0	0	0	1
Materials Engineering	0	0	0	1	1
Liberal Arts General Studies	1	0	0	0	1
Applied Mathematics	1	0	0	0	1
Human Resource Management	0	0	0	0	0
Computer Information Systems	0	0	0	0	0
Engineering Science	0	0	0	0	0
TOTAL	706	75	389	53	1,223

References

*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.

• College Factual
• National Center for Education Statistics
• Image Credit: By RobinsonRP under License

More about our data sources and methodologies.