What You'll Actually Pay
Price after grants
$9,070 to $24,296 a year for in-state students, depending on income.
College Scorecard 2024 estimate · in-state rates
See the price at your income ↑Sticker price
Full cost before aid: $30,111 a year in-state. Average need-based aid package: $17,957.Aid and debt
45.4%
receive need-based grants
$24,531
average debt at graduation
20,663
students got merit aid
about 32% of undergraduates
$9,393
average merit award
Getting In
Key dates
Test scores
SAT composite range not reported by this school.
ACT composite range not reported by this school.
29.9% were in the top 10% of their high school class.
What they value
- Very important
- GPA
- Important
- Course rigor (AP/IB)
- Class rank
- Considered
- SAT/ACT scores
- In-state residency
- Not considered
- Personal essay
- Recommendations
- Extracurriculars
- Special talent
- Character
- First-gen status
- Legacy status
- Where you're from
- Volunteer work
- Work experience
- Demonstrated interest
What this means for you
Arizona State rates course rigor as Important.
MoreLess
AP, IB, and dual-enrollment classes strengthen an application here — a strong mix of them helps.
Arizona State doesn't consider demonstrated interest in admissions at all — visits and follow-up emails won't move the needle here.
Source: Common Data Set 2025–26, Section C7 (admissions factors)
Arizona State just showed you what it values in an application. Use that to write a Why-Arizona State essay that's actually about you — not a template.
Get sourced starting points for your essayStudent Life
34.5% of Arizona State classes have fewer than 20 students.
34.5%
under 20 students
46.3%
20 to 49
19.2%
50 or more
Every class section counts, labs and seminars included; first-year courses tend to be larger. Arizona State CDS 2025–26, I-3.
18:1
student:faculty ratio
Campus life
26.6%
first-years from out of state
24%
live on campus
7.7%
of men in fraternities
12%
of women in sororities
Who attends
- White38.6%
- Hispanic27.8%
- Asian9.3%
- Multiracial5.4%
- Unknown / other4.8%
- Black4.6%
Enrolled undergraduates; international students are counted separately and not included. Arizona State CDS 2025–26, B2.
Popular majors
Will They Graduate?
55.3% of Arizona State students graduate in 4 years.
55.3%
finish in 4 years
Entered fall 2019
69.3%
finish in 6 years
Entered fall 2019
87.3%
return after first year
Finishing late means paying for extra semesters, so the 4-year rate is the one that shows the cost.
Students with Pell Grants
60.4% finish in 6 years, against 69.3% of all students.
An 8.9-point gap: Pell Grant students finish less often than students overall.
City & Culture
Beyond the data — what it's actually like to spend four years in Tempe.
Tempe is a dense, walkable city wedged into the middle of metro Phoenix, with Mill Avenue's bars and restaurants running right off the edge of campus and a light rail line through the middle of it that reaches downtown Phoenix without a transfer.
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Almost everything is outdoors almost all year — hiking, cycling, and a lake and butte within walking distance of class. The trade is the summer: highs sit above 105°F from June into September, and students who need seasons or green will feel the absence of both.
The City
Major city
Tempe, AZ
Best For
Notable alumni
Notable Alumni
Kate Spade
Founded the Kate Spade handbag label, which grew into a global fashion brand, after transferring to ASU and taking a journalism degree in 1985.
Temple Grandin
Redesigned livestock handling systems used across the meat industry and became one of the most widely read authors on autism, taking her master's in animal science at ASU.
Barbara Barrett
Served as the 25th United States Secretary of the Air Force and as U.S. Ambassador to Finland, after earning her bachelor's, master's and law degrees all at ASU.
Jimmy Kimmel
Host and executive producer of Jimmy Kimmel Live! and a four-time Academy Awards host, who got his start calling in to a Phoenix radio show while attending ASU.
Pat Tillman
An All-American linebacker at ASU who left an NFL contract with the Arizona Cardinals to enlist as an Army Ranger after September 11, and was killed in Afghanistan in 2004; his number 42 is retired at the university.
Phil Mickelson
Won six major championships as a professional after taking three individual NCAA titles at ASU, a record he shares with Ben Crenshaw.
Alumni selected for name recognition and range of fields. Not from the Common Data Set.
Traditions
Traditions
Whitewashing "A" Mountain
A concrete 'A' has sat on the south face of Tempe Butte, just north of campus, since 1938. Each year new students climb up and repaint it gold, and before rivalry games students revive a 1930s tradition of camping on the mountainside to guard it — the original 'A' was destroyed with pipe bombs in 1952 and rebuilt in 1955.
Lantern Walk
ASU's oldest tradition, dating to 1917. Students, alumni, faculty and staff carry lanterns through campus and up 'A' Mountain to light up Tempe, with speakers, performances and fireworks. Originally held in June, it now runs the week before Homecoming, alongside a football game.
Curtain of Distraction
At every men's and women's basketball game since 2013, a portable curtain opens in front of the opposing free-throw shooter and students burst out in costume — Elvis impersonators, absurd skits — to break their concentration. It is the ASU tradition most likely to have reached you before you ever looked at the school.
Weekend escapes from Tempe
Weekend Escapes
Within driving distance from Tempe
Sedona
2 hoursRed rock canyons and desert hiking trails, and the standard first road trip out of the Valley.
Flagstaff & Arizona Snowbowl
2.5 hoursPonderosa pine forest at 7,000 feet with a real ski resort above it — a 40-degree temperature swing from campus and the fastest way out of the heat.
Grand Canyon South Rim
3.5 hoursClose enough to do as a long weekend rather than a once-in-four-years trip.
Getting there and game days
Getting There & Game Days
Nearest airport
Phoenix Sky Harbor International (PHX)
10 minutes from campus
Flies international — you can start a trip abroad from here.
Pro sports nearby
- Arizona Cardinals NFL
- Phoenix Suns NBA
- Arizona Diamondbacks MLB
- Phoenix Mercury WNBA
Internships and jobs nearby
Career Proximity
Metro Phoenix is in the middle of a semiconductor build-out — TSMC's Arizona fabs to the north, Intel's long-standing Chandler campus 20 minutes south — and State Farm's regional tower sits directly across the street from the Tempe campus.
Top Industries Nearby
Major Employers
- Intel
- Honeywell Aerospace
- Banner Health
- American Express
- State Farm
Downtown Phoenix — about 20 minutes by car, or a direct light rail ride from campus
Who thrives here
Who Thrives Here
Arizona State is a 660-acre campus in Tempe carrying 64,662 undergraduates, and the first thing to understand is how it admits them. Academic GPA is the only factor it rates Very Important; course rigor and class rank are Important; essays, recommendations, extracurriculars, talent and interviews are every one of them Not Considered. What that means in practice is that the transcript decides, not the story a student tells about it — 88.4% of applicants are admitted — and it is why the application here is a short one. Campus life sits lightly on top of a real city: only 24.0% of undergraduates live in university housing, 7.7% of men and 12.0% of women join Greek life, and Mill Avenue and the light rail into Phoenix carry most of the rest. What binds the place together is a set of very specific rituals — repainting the concrete 'A' on Tempe Butte, the Lantern Walk up the same hill that has run since 1917, and the Curtain of Distraction that students throw open in front of opposing free-throw shooters. Roughly two thirds of the entering class is from Arizona — 67.6% in state against 26.6% from out of it — so the gap between $13,534 and $37,072 is usually the number that decides this one. The honest cautions are finishing and aid: 55.3% graduate in four years and 69.3% in six, Arizona State meets 59.0% of demonstrated need, and Pell recipients finish within six years at 60.4%. Against that, its merit programme is broad rather than token — 20,663 undergraduates hold non-need awards averaging $9,393.