
Bronx, NYprivate nonprofitwww.mountsaintvincent.edu/
Admit rate has ranged 82%–93% over the last 5 years — notably volatile. Source: IPEDS via Urban Institute.
Acceptance & SAT from Common Data Set / IPEDS; net price, earnings & graduation from the U.S. Dept. of Education College Scorecard. Figures lag ~1–2 years — verify with the school.
The University of Mount Saint Vincent is a small, Catholic liberal arts college perched on a hilltop in the Bronx, offering a pragmatic, career-focused education with a surprisingly strong nursing program. Its 85% acceptance rate and 13.6% yield signal a school that is accessible and eager to build its class, serving a predominantly local student body with a curriculum that blends a traditional core with direct professional pathways. The vibe is supportive and community-focused, more about finding your niche in a tight-knit group than navigating a sprawling urban campus.
Test-optional — scores considered if submitted
Source: IPEDS Admissions survey (2022) via Urban Institute. Covers formal factors only — it does not reflect essays, extracurriculars, or other holistic criteria.
More details
Outcomes & value
Median earnings by field of study (highest credential), ~2 years after completion.
Campus & location
On-campus criminal offenses classed as violent (murder/non-negligent manslaughter, rape, robbery, aggravated assault) for the most recent reported year. Source: U.S. Dept. of Education Campus Safety and Security (Clery Act). Counts reflect what’s reported to the school, and urban campuses often report more partly due to non-student incidents nearby — read alongside campus size and setting, not as a standalone safety verdict.
Pleasant days counts days per year with a mean temperature of 55–75°F, a high at or below 90°F, a low at or above 45°F, and little precipitation — a transparent comfort measure, not a weighting we invented. Computed from Open-Meteo ERA5 daily history (2019–2023). Natural-hazard risk is the county’s composite rating from the FEMA National Risk Index.
Admissions at Mount Saint Vincent are accessible, with an of 85%. The process draws a large applicant pool—over 3,500 students applied in a recent cycle—but only about 13.6% of those admitted ultimately enroll, a rate that suggests many students are using it as a safety or backup option. The middle 50% SAT range for enrolled students is 1011–1178. The university does not appear to have a binding Early Decision program, and there is no available data on an Early Decision acceptance rate or the share of the class filled via ED. While the is a standard source for understanding how colleges weigh factors like demonstrated interest, the specific CDS for Mount Saint Vincent was not among the provided sources, so its policy on considering demonstrated interest cannot be confirmed from these materials.
Earnings = median of students working ~10 years after entry; debt = median of graduates. Value divides 10-yr earnings by one year’s net price — read it as earnings per dollar of annual cost, not a full lifetime ROI; it favors lower-cost schools. Source: U.S. Dept. of Education College Scorecard. Figures lag ~2 years and reflect all students, not your intended major.
Source: U.S. Dept. of Education College Scorecard (field-of-study earnings). Figures cover graduates who received federal aid and lag ~2 years; not all programs report data.
Compare on earnings: best colleges for Nursing · best colleges for Business · best colleges for Communications · best colleges for Biology · best colleges for Psychology
Academics are built on a four-year core curriculum providing grounding in literature, foreign language, art, and history, intended to transform students for careers, not just jobs. The most popular majors are decisively in the helping professions: Psychology and Health Professions (which includes Nursing) accounted for over 75% of degrees awarded to a recent graduating class. Other specialized majors include Education and Business. The university highlights robust pre-professional programs and offers graduate degrees in high-demand fields like nursing, physician assistant studies, and business. The curriculum allows for interdisciplinary study, with programs that can be designed around special interests like applied ethics.
Life on the hilltop campus is described as supportive, respectful, inclusive, and safe, with a focus on community over large-scale partying. The university actively promotes this vision of campus culture. A range of clubs and organizations caters to interests in writing, acting, art, music, dance, fashion, culture, athletics, community service, and the environment. Social media glimpses show students engaging in pickup games and unwinding after class, suggesting a casual, active atmosphere where students find space to study, stay active, and enjoy themselves.
Outcomes are a mixed picture, heavily influenced by the strong performance of its nursing program. The overall graduation rate is 57%. However, the nursing program shows markedly higher and improving completion rates, reaching 85.5% in 2024. Median earnings ten years after entry are $65,756. Early-career earnings for graduates average around $46,000, which one analysis notes is about $3,000 worse than might be expected based on the college's profile. The first-year retention rate is 73.1%.
The average after aid is $21,696. A high percentage (93%) of full-time beginning undergraduates receive grant or scholarship aid. The university's stated primary objective is to provide financial assistance to students who would otherwise be unable to attend, and it offers a range of scholarships, grants, loans, and employment. The financial aid materials note that the amount a student pays is affected by the university's ability to meet demonstrated need. The provided sources do not contain information stating that Mount Saint Vincent has a policy of meeting 100% of demonstrated financial need for all admitted students, nor do they describe a no-loan policy where aid packages exclude loans for qualifying students.
Mount Saint Vincent stands out for its stark, pragmatic identity: a small liberal arts college in New York City that has decisively oriented itself toward the healthcare workforce. Its nursing program is the engine of the institution, boasting completion rates that far exceed the college's overall average and directly feeding strong median earnings for graduates. This creates a two-tiered reality: a general student body navigating a decent but unexceptional graduation rate, and a cohort of nursing students exiting with highly reliable credentials into a stable, well-compensated field. The campus culture consciously rejects the anonymous, transactional feel of a city commuter school, instead pushing a narrative of inclusive community—a small world atop a Bronx hill, purpose-built for students who want a direct path to a helping profession without getting lost in the crowd.