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Southern College of Optometry
Admissions & graduation
Selectivity, enrollment, and graduation outcomes.
Acceptance rate
—
Not reported
Enrolled, first-time
—
Not reported
Graduation rate
—
Not reported
Student-to-faculty ratio
—
Not reported
By gender
By race and ethnicity
From the IPEDS Fall Enrollment (EF) survey, fall 2024 headcount of all enrolled students. IPEDS reports gender as men and women and race and ethnicity in federal categories; nonresident students are not classified by race. Online learning counts students taking distance-education courses in fall 2024 (IPEDS Fall Enrollment, distance education). These figures describe who enrolls, not how any group fares at the school. The Department of Education has not endorsed MajorPays' presentation.
Over the 2023-24 year, 548 different students were enrolled at some point. Source: NCES IPEDS 12-month Enrollment, 2023-24 (every student enrolled at any time during the year, counted once; high school students are counted in the total; provisional data). A count of people enrolled, not a measure of quality.
Total enrollment trend (fall headcount)
Source: NCES IPEDS Fall Enrollment, total headcount of all students each fall (2019 to 2024; the 2024 figure is provisional). A school that merges, adds or closes a campus, or changes which campuses it reports together, can show a sudden jump that is not a change in students.
Degrees awarded trend
Source: NCES IPEDS Completions, degrees awarded each academic year (associate’s, bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral, first majors; 2023-24 is a provisional release): the number of awards, not of people, and not a measure of quality. A school that merges, adds or closes a campus, or changes which campuses it reports together, can show a sudden jump that is not a change in students.
Academic calendar
Semester
From the IPEDS Institutional Characteristics survey (2024-25 collection, provisional; housing, meal plan and application fee from the Cost component). Open admission means the school admits students without selective criteria for most programs. Services and opportunities are those the school reported offering. The Department of Education has not endorsed MajorPays’ presentation.
Graduate students
From the IPEDS Fall Enrollment survey (enrollment by age, fall 2023; the age component is collected in full only in odd years, so some schools show fall 2023), U.S. Dept. of Education, NCES; students of unknown age are left out and levels with fewer than 30 students are not shown. The counts describe who enrolls, and the Department of Education has not endorsed the MajorPays presentation.
Doctoral degrees (research, professional and other): 135
From the IPEDS Completions survey (awards and degrees conferred, academic year 2023-24, provisional release that includes estimates for institutions that did not respond), U.S. Dept. of Education, NCES; first majors only, so a graduate with two majors is counted once. Levels with fewer than 30 degrees, and race and ethnicity groups with fewer than 5 degrees, are not shown. IPEDS reports gender as men and women and race and ethnicity in federal categories; nonresident students are not classified by race. These counts describe who earns degrees here, not how any group fares, and MajorPays does not rank institutions and does not provide advice. The Department of Education has not endorsed the MajorPays presentation.
From the IPEDS Completions survey (degrees conferred July 2023 to June 2024, first majors only, provisional release that includes estimates for institutions that did not respond), U.S. Dept. of Education, NCES, grouped by the 2-digit field families of the Classification of Instructional Programs 2020. A level is shown only when at least 30 degrees were awarded, and fields with fewer than 5 degrees are included only in "All other fields". Degrees awarded are counts of awards, not of people, and say nothing about the quality of a program. MajorPays does not rank institutions or programs and does not provide advice. The Department of Education has not endorsed the MajorPays presentation.
Average pay, full-time instructional staff
$101,873
54 staff, 2024-25 (9-month basis)
From the IPEDS Human Resources survey (salaries of full-time, nonmedical, instructional staff, 2024-25), U.S. Dept. of Education, NCES. Salaries are averages for the group at this institution, converted to a 9-month basis (staff on contracts shorter than 9 months are excluded); they say nothing about any individual and depend on the mix of fields and ranks. The Department of Education has not endorsed the MajorPays presentation.
Total expenses
$35.3 million
2023-24, all purposes
Instruction spending per student
$29,344
548 full-time-equivalent students; includes departmental research and medical instruction not budgeted separately
From the IPEDS Finance survey (2023-24; forms F1A, F2 or F3 depending on the accounting standard the institution follows) and IPEDS 12-month enrollment (full-time-equivalent students), U.S. Dept. of Education, NCES. Shares are each function as a share of total expenses. Some institutions report finances for several campuses together (their students are added together here), and some values are estimates for institutions that did not report. Institutions with hospitals, large research programs or auxiliary enterprises spend much of their money outside instruction, and accounting rules differ between public and private institutions, so figures are not directly comparable between institutions. Spending is not a measure of quality. MajorPays does not rank institutions and does not provide advice. The Department of Education has not endorsed the MajorPays presentation.
Research and development spending
$1.1 million
fiscal year 2024, all sources
From the National Science Foundation’s Higher Education Research and Development (HERD) Survey, fiscal year 2024 (research and development spending, including spending on medical school research and funds the institution itself provides), National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics. Figures are what an institution reported spending, not research quality or results, and institutions with medical schools or large research centers report much more. Short-form institutions report fewer details, some totals are estimates NSF made for institutions that did not report, and institutions that report several campuses together, or that NSF could not match to a federal identifier, are not shown. MajorPays does not rank institutions and does not provide advice. The National Science Foundation has not endorsed the MajorPays presentation.
Full-time-equivalent staff
199
employees on the payroll, fall 2024, including medical school staff; graduate assistants not counted
From the IPEDS Human Resources survey (full-time-equivalent staff by occupational category, fall 2024), U.S. Dept. of Education, NCES. Full-time-equivalent staff count each part-time employee as one third of a full-time one; counts include medical school staff where the institution has one but not graduate assistants. Institutions with hospitals, research centers or athletic programs employ many people outside teaching, and some campuses report together (figures for child campuses are estimates allocated from the parent), so counts are not directly comparable between institutions. MajorPays does not rank institutions and does not provide advice. The Department of Education has not endorsed the MajorPays presentation.
From the IPEDS Human Resources survey, full-time instructional staff by faculty and tenure status (fall 2024; provisional), U.S. Dept. of Education, NCES. Only full-time instructional staff are counted, so part-time instructors (adjuncts) do not appear here and the figures do not show who teaches any particular class. “Not on the tenure track” includes schools with no tenure system and staff on contracts. A larger share of tenured or tenure-track faculty is not a sign of a better or worse school. MajorPays does not rank schools. The Department of Education has not endorsed the MajorPays presentation.
Acceptance rate is admitted ÷ applicants; yield rate is enrolled ÷ admitted. Graduation rate is completers within 150% of normal program time ÷ the adjusted cohort size. From IPEDS Admissions (ADM), Graduation Rates (GR), and Fall Enrollment (EF) survey components. Completion within 8 years is from the IPEDS Outcome Measures (OM) component: the share of degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates who started in 2016-17 and earned any award from this school within eight years, counting part-time and transfer-in students that the standard graduation rate leaves out; the Department of Education has not endorsed MajorPays' presentation.
Outcomes after enrolling
What students earned and how they repaid federal loans, from the U.S. Dept. of Education College Scorecard.
Source: U.S. Dept. of Education, College Scorecard (institution-level data, June 2026 release), licensed under Creative Commons Attribution. MajorPays has selected and reorganized these measures; the Department has not endorsed them. Earnings are for students who received federal financial aid and were working and not enrolled 6, 8 and 10 years after first entering the school; family income groups are thirds of students' reported family income. Repayment shows undergraduate federal loan borrowers by status after entering repayment (deferment and forbearance are combined). The monthly amount on the debt card is the Department's calculation of a standard 10-year payment at 4.99% interest on the median federal debt of students who completed; actual payments depend on the repayment plan. A dash means the value is not published, often because too few students were in the group.
Earnings and debt by program
| Program | Degrees awarded in 2020-21 | Median earnings 1 year after | Median earnings 4 years after | Median federal loan debt |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Optometry | — | $106,728 | $133,907 | — |
Source: U.S. Dept. of Education, College Scorecard Field of Study data (June 2026 release; Creative Commons Attribution license; MajorPays selected and reorganized the figures). Earnings are the median for graduates who were working and not enrolled in more school, 1 year after finishing (graduates of 2018-19 and 2019-20, in 2022 dollars) and 4 years after (graduates of 2014-15 and 2015-16, in 2021 dollars); debt is the median federal Stafford and Grad PLUS loan debt of graduates who borrowed, including loans taken at other schools (Parent PLUS and private loans are not included; graduates of 2018-19 and 2019-20). A dash means the Department did not publish the figure, usually because the group was small. The counts of degrees awarded are awards in 2020-21, a different year from the graduates measured for earnings and debt, and are awards, not people. Programs are grouped by the Department’s four-digit program codes, listed alphabetically within each degree level, not ranked. Earnings and debt differ for many reasons besides the program, such as the students’ backgrounds and the local job market, and the earlier cohorts predate recent changes. The Department of Education has not endorsed the MajorPays presentation. MajorPays does not provide advice.
Cost
Tuition, net price, and how it's changed over time.
Not reported.
Financial aid
Grants and loans received by full-time first-year students.
Not reported.
12 students received Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits ($41,138 on average, $493,651 in all).
Source: U.S. Dept. of Education, NCES, IPEDS Student Financial Aid component, Military Service and Veteran’s Benefits (academic year 2023-24; reported by each school; shown when at least 10 students received the benefit). Recipients can include spouses and dependents, and Yellow Ribbon matching aid is not included. These are counts of students and dollars, not a rating of how a school treats veterans or service members, and they do not say who may enroll. The Department of Education has not endorsed the MajorPays presentation. MajorPays does not provide advice.
Admissions office · How to apply · Financial aid office · Net price calculator
Web addresses the school itself reported to the U.S. Dept. of Education (IPEDS directory, 2024-25). MajorPays does not control these sites and cannot vouch for them; the addresses may be out of date. Always check the school’s own site for current prices and deadlines. MajorPays does not provide advice.
Finances
Revenue, expenses, and financial indicators.
Core revenue
$32,082,222
Most recent year: 2024
Core expense
$34,233,217
Total operating expense
Instruction spending
$29,344
Per FTE student
Endowment
$65,747
Per FTE student
Equity ratio
82.0%
Equity divided by total assets
Reported as a private nonprofit institution, FASB accounting standard. Core revenue/expense are total operating figures (not per-student). Equity ratio is the share of total assets financed by equity rather than debt (shown only between -100% and 100%; what is typical varies a lot by sector, and this is not a judgment of the institution). From IPEDS Finance survey component.
Staffing
Faculty salary and staff counts (full-time equivalent).
Total staff
199
Full-time equivalent
Instructional staff
58
Full-time equivalent
Average salary is equated to a 9-month contract for full-time instructional staff. FTE (full-time equivalent) staff counts combine full- and part-time staff into a single comparable headcount. From IPEDS Human Resources survey component.