OverviewAdmissionsProgramsCostsFinancial AidUndergraduate OutcomesClassroomSportsHousingServicesResearchStudent BodySchool Finances
Overview
Founded in 1948, Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico - Ponce is located in a midsized city with a population at least 100,000, but less than 250,000. It is in the Ponce PR area.
Highlights
Undergraduate program with the highest reported starting salary ($38K): Architecture
Largest undergraduate program (119): Registered Nursing
Institutional Control
Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico - Ponce is a private not-for-profit organization and is related to other schools.
Denomination
Roman CatholicStudent Focus
Hispanic-serving
Fewer details
Accreditation
Accreditation provides important oversight over a school's instructional practices and institutional stability.
Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico - Ponce holds an accreditation from one of the seven regional accreditors, which should ensure that credits earned transfer easily to other schools.
Accreditation History
Middle States Commission on Higher Education (Accredited July 1, 1953 - present)
- The next accreditation review was scheduled for March 31, 2018.
Undergraduate Students
Not all students attend their first college full time to completion. While some schools are focused on those that population, many schools focus on transfer and or part time students. What types of of student does this school support.
Full-time first-time students
Full-time transfer students
Part-time first-time students
Part-time transfer students
Admissions
Context: Average High School GPA
Last year's entering freshman class at Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico - Ponce had an average GPA of 3.48. This is near the middle of the context schools' averages.
Fewer details
Admissions Details
Here are some important dates and little tidbits. Please double-check this information on the Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico - Ponce's webpage for the most up-to-date and accurate answers! We update this information with each school's annual reporting, but information can change unexpectedly. Select any item to view the details.
Admissions Criteria & Qualifications
Application Fee & Common App
Freshman application dates
Transfer application information
Credits accepted from new students
Percentage of applicants who are accepted
A low percentage here can indicate that a school is highly selective. We think this is one of the least important numbers for you to consider.
Selectivity can be misleading
You may have heard that a high rejection rate is an indicator of a good school. However, this number can be gamed, and some schools started gaming the system to perform better in college ratings books and sites. Ididio believes a combination of good outcomes (e.g. successful graduation rates and loan repayments) along with indicators of a well-prepared student body (e.g. test scores and high school records) are the best indicators of a good academic experience for those who attend. Our advice is that you don't pay too much attention to this number as you decide whether you might be admitted.
Percentage of accepted students who choose to attend
This is called the yield, and it suggests whether this was a first-choice school or a back-up school for most applicants. Even the most prestigious Ivy League schools lose about a third of their accepted students come enrollment time.
Programs
Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico - Ponce program offerings
What award level are you pursuing?
Bachelor's Degree
Select a degree to see the details, or use the sankey below to explore the options.
Select a degree
Order degrees by.
Program Size (Completions)
Healthcare
Sciences
General/Interdisciplinary
Health Support
Community Services
Social Sciences
Engineering/Design
Costs
Undergraduate costs
Here's a quick summary of costs to attend Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico - Ponce. You will find the most up-to-date information at their website for admissions.
View
All
Charge
Annual fees
Annual tuition
Estimated books and supplies
Miscellaneous (living off campus)
Miscellaneous (living on campus)
Miscellaneous (living with family)
Off-campus room and board
On-campus room and board
Per-credit charges
Cost
$660
$4,920
$1,735
$5,201
$4,883
$7,477
$6,785
$5,091
$205
Fewer details
Net price: the best estimate for the cost to attend
Most schools publish tuition rates that give them room to offer both scholarships and financial aid where applicable. Your best estimate of what might pay is to see what others with similar family incomes have paid. A more tailored and accurate estimate is available at this school's net price calculator.
Understanding net price
With their net price calculators, many colleges and universities give an idea of what merit-based aid might accompany need-based aid. For schools that share such data, we also provide financial aid data in the Finanical Aid sections.
There are some caveats to consider when using the net price estimates:
- The net price calculation is weighted by this school's proportion of students living on- and off-campus and this school's estimate of off-campus costs, which may cause the net price methodology be a bit inconsistent from school to school.
- Parental income and student financial aid eligibility is sometimes more complicated than the simple family income number reported here.
- The net price calculation for all students is inclusive of students who received any institutional or government aid, but at the family income levels the net price only considers the tuition paid by those who qualified for federal aid.
You can get a little better guess at what you would pay by using this school's net price calculator.
Percentage of students receiving any aid
The donut, based on 1,167 full-time first-time degree seeking students at Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico - Ponce, shows the percentage of those who received any financial aid (including merit-based scholarships), subdivided by family income.
Aid type and family income
Federal: $0-30K
Federal: $30K-48K
Federal: $48K-75K
Federal: $75K-110K
Federal: Above $110K
Only institutional
Net price by family income
All Incomes
Let's look over the past few years at what freshmen who received any financial aid actually paid for tuition, fees, books, and living expenses on average, and how that compares to the tuition usually paid for other private universities in your context group. Public universities only report net price for in-state students.
Find your net price estimate: www.https://www.pucpr.edu/net_price_calculato...
Not so much?
Historic Annual Costs
See how this school's published costs have changed over the years, and how their cost trends compare with other private schools.
Published costs may have little to do with what you actually pay
It's important to remember that a school's published costs may not be indicative of what it will actually cost to attend. Time magazine wrote about this in their article Yes, you can get a college to cut its tuition price. Nonetheless, this inflation-adjusted look at the historic annual costs for tuition, fees, books, and supplies can give you an idea of the costs you might expect in the coming years. Comparing the total costs inclusive of room and board (if applicable) with the annual net price estimates in the previous tab will help you determine the financial aid package to expect.
Private and public universities' charges are difficult to compare due to the in-state and out-of-state price differences of public universities, and therefore we only compare Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico - Ponce to other private schools within your chosen context group.
Include room and board
Undergraduate tuition, fees, books, and supplies over time
Financial Aid
Student Financial Need
How likely are you to get a scholarship if you attend? This section covers the likelihood that students with or without need are receiving financial aid. You can see this data for the full-time degree-seeking undergraduate student population as a whole or for full-time freshmen only.
Choose a student group
Full-time undergraduates
Full-time freshmen
Context: Need met for full-time undergraduates
Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico - Ponce uses federal methodology to determine if a student needs aid. According to their benchmark, they believe that 61% of full-time degree-seeking undergraduate need has been met. In general, the funds that close the gap between the cost of attendance (COA) and the expected family contribution (EFC) is filled by student loans, but some schools distribute enough financial aid to make sure this is not necessary. Visit the financial aid website to explore what promises Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico - Poncemakes.
Overview of student need and resources used (Full-time degree-seeking undergraduate students)
The average annual financial aid package received by full-time degree-seeking undergraduates who were identified to have need totals $7,118, of which on average $3,563 is in the form of loans.
Student financial need
Have need
No need
Fewer details
Financial aid overview
Understanding the rules and process that determine who gets financial aid can be intimidating. Here are some quick links to help:
- Visit Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico - Ponce's Net Price Calculator for the most accurate estimate of your anticipated costs. Every school publishes a Net Price Calculator that does its best to give you a fair estimate of what you might expect to pay. Many calculators consider your high school record as part of the calculation. This will be far more accurate than any of the averages or published tuition values that you see here.
- FederalStudentAid, a government site that will walk you through the federal financial aid process. There are a number of kinds of student loans and other aid, and this site can walk you through all of the choices you will need to make.
The Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico - Ponce deadline for priority financial aid consideration is April 15. Applicants are notified of results on June 15 and must respond within 4 weeks.
Required Forms
Loan Programs
Need-based Scholarships Available
Non-need-based Scholarships Available
International Students
Not so much?
Cumulative student loans
The student loan data in this section is compiled for the most recent graduating class at , and provides total debt incurred while attending.
Student loan type
The bars below give you a peek at what types of loans students took out most frequently. Using the tab, you can view the average amounts of each type of loan.
Average student loan amounts
The bars below show the average cumative amount corresponding to each type of loan. Use the tabs above to see the percentages of students using each type of loan.
Undergraduate Outcomes
Graduation Rate
Approximately 99% of undergraduate students were full-time with about 70% of them attending college for the first time. In the last reporting year, 47% of students, including those who were part-time or transfer students, received a degree within 8 years.
Time to complete
4 years
6 years
8 years
Context: Graduation rate
These numbers reflect eight-year graduation rates for all degrees at the colleges and universities in your chosen context group. This reporting is for undergraduate students inclusive of transfer students and full/part-time students.
Loan Status
This donut shows the percentage of students who are in good standing (green) in repaying any federal student loans five years after leaving Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico - Ponce.
Status of loans
Closed (fully paid)
Currently paying
Deferred for miliary or school
Suspended (usually for hardship)
More than 90 days late in paying
In default
Another status not released
Context: Loans with good standing
About 65% of the context schools have better performance, suggesting that Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico - Ponce's alumni earnings-to-debt ratios are low compared to the context schools' alumni.
Fewer details
Are students graduating on time?
Let us tell you all about low graduation rates!
Across the country, graduation rates are surprisingly low. In fact, Forbes Magazine suggests that they are unacceptably low. However, from another point of view, sometimes graduation rates simply reflect the relative preparation of the students who enter. Colleges with a mission to help people coming from less advantaged backgrounds, such as first-generation and low-income students, may have low graduation rates despite relatively strong outcomes for students who face many obstacles to success. Without the context provided in these views of completion rates, it can be tricky to separate predatory schools that take financial advantage of under-prepared students from those that are actively seeking to encourage and help those students.
For the consumer choosing a school, once you have narrowed your list to those schools that you can afford and that seem likely to admit you, consider the outcome measures in this section and choose the specific measures that best describe your plans. Very simply, schools with high graduation rates and high loan repayment rates will likely give you the best opportunity to succeed.
Context: the impact of wealth and transfer status on degree completion
We took a close look lagging success for students with financial need in a case study. Here's a chance to compare schools based on student successes with a better appreciation of how circumstances may impact success. One word of caution: the statistics for some categories may consist of only a handful of students -- see the details by hovering or long-pressing on the bars.
Full-time first-time students
Full-time transfer students
Part-time first-time students
Part-time transfer students
Choose a student group
Full-time first-time students
Full-time transfer students
Part-time first-time students
Part-time transfer students
Percentage with Pell Grants
Years after enrolling.
4
6
8
Full-time first-time students who received an award within 8 years after enrolling
Context and trends: Repayment Rate
How much progress do you think you'll be able to make towards paying down your college loans seven years after leaving school? In our research, we discovered that a surprisingly large number of students don't default on their loans, but also aren't making progress in paying down their principal amount. The percentages here count alumni who have decreased their loan amounts by at least $1.
Years after leaving school.
7
5
3
Context and trends: are the loan default rates as small as possible?
The default rate is the percentage of students who are already delinquent on their loans within three years of leaving the school. If a school has a high default rate, that sends an alarm out that the students' educations are not sufficient to earn enough to repay those loans. Read below for details on the typical loan burden, and keep in mind that a low default rate may be more important than loan amounts in predicting your future success.
Loan burden
At Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico - Ponce, 40% of full-time degree-seeking freshmen receive federal student loans, averaging $3,581 each in just the freshman year. We have much more details about the full loan burden students experience in our Cost and Financial Aid Section.
Context: Percentage of freshmen with federal loans
Context: Average freshman federal loan amount
Not so much?
Classroom Experience
Student attention at Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico - Ponce
Schools are required to report the ratio of students per instructor, but look for a small number of students for every full-time instructor as your best indicator of personal attention and a modern well-integrated curriculum.
Fewer details
Quality and Quantity of Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico - Ponce faculty
Faculty are the heart of a school. Make sure the school you attend has highly-qualified faculty who are regularly in their offices and happy to meet with you.
Full-time faculty overview
The best bachelor’s and graduate programs are generally taught by long-term faculty with tenure, as these instructors typically hold the highest degree possible in their field of expertise. Their commitment to research, their students, and to the school itself should be outstanding. The more green in the chart, the more long-term faculty are available to offer you steady classroom quality.
Learn more about the bars in this chart
Traditionally, the long-term faculty at a school are hired as Assistant Professors. After about six years, they then advance to the Associate Professor level after proving excellence in three areas: teaching, service to the institution, and significant contributions to their field of expertise. Assistant professors who are not promoted to the Associate level are usually required to leave the school. The rank of Professor is reserved for senior faculty who have demonstrated the highest standing in those three areas. The standards of excellence differ widely across institutions; nonetheless, the presence of a large proportion of faculty in the three professor ranks suggests you will be taught by faculty who are invested in their academic fields and in the school. Generally, instructors with any of the three professor titles will hold the highest possible (terminal) degree in their academic fields.
The instructor/lecturer positions are generally held by full-time faculty who are focused on teaching alone, often for lower-level classes. These positions usually require some advanced education or experience, but not the highest (terminal) degree in a given academic field. Those teaching with no academic rank may be hired to teach in mostly non-academic fields, giving skills- or vocation-based guidance.
Not Faculty
Faculty, not tenure-track: sub-annual
Faculty, not tenure-track: annual
Faculty, not tenure-track: multi-year or indefinite
Faculty, tenure-track
Faculty, tenured
Context: Percentage of full-time faculty
Full-time faculty are mostly likely to be on campus and available for interaction, and most likely to craft up-to-date courses and programs. Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico - Ponce performs better
in this measure than
65% of the context schools.
Read more about why you want mostly full-time faculty teaching you
Context: Full-time faculty with the best degrees
Students earning a bachelor's degree or higher should expect to receive the bulk of their education from experts in their field who have earned the highest possible degree.
Not so much?
Faculty Diversity
Here's an opportunity to explore the faculty's diversity. For many schools, attracting a diverse teaching faculty can be a challenge. It's important to judge their success with the reality check of what their peer schools have accomplished.
An overview of faculty race and gender
Here the bars show faculty rank, with male faculty to the left and female faculty to the right. The race/origin of faculty are shown by color. The view with rank is important because many of our elite schools have a problem with diversity at the higher faculty ranks. Are women and minorities being promoted at Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico - Ponce?
White
Hispanic
Sports
Varsity sports at Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico - Ponce
Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico - Ponce participates in the Other.
Fewer details
Sports participation
Note: Participants include any of the following: a student listed on the varsity roster, a student reciving student aid related to this sport, or a student who is practicing with the varsity team and receiving coaching from the varsity coaching staff, including junior varsity, freshman, redshirt, or novice participants as well as fifth-year members who have already received a bachelor\'s degree.
Not so much?
Sports revenue and expenses
View
Revenue
Game Day Expenses
Expense per participant
Note: For many sports, the revenue is typically from institutional support, but for the popular sports at division I schools, revenue can be large and include money generated by public consumption of sporting events. Revenues can include appearance guarantees and options, contributions from alumni and others, royalties, sponsorships, profits from camps, government support, and ticket sales, as well as institutional support.
Housing
Activities and Services
Activities offered
- Choral groups
- Drama/theater
- Marching band
- National Fraternities
Special academic opportunities
- 3-2 program in Business Administration
- 3-2 program in Engineering with Case Western Reserve University
- 3-2 program in Pharmacy With Nova University
- Credit for advanced placement
- Double-major allowed
- Formal adult program
- Honors Program
- Off campus study: Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico
- Orientation program
- Part-time degree programs
- Remediation available
- Services for learning disabilities
- Summer session
- Teacher certification programs
Undergraduate services offered
- Health clinic
- Legal services
- Personal/psychological counseling
- Remedial services
- Academic/career counseling services
- Employment services for current students
- Placement services for program completers
- On-campus day care for children of students
Programs for Veterans
If you are a veteran, it's worth digging around to find a military-friendly campus. We think this article about how colleges might help veterans might be a good starting point for questions to ask the Admissions office before you choose to attend. It's also good to be aware that many for-profit schools are behaving as predators, hungry for GI Bill dollars. Watching out for those schools is no different for veterans than for all students: judge very critically using our "Student Satisfaction and Success" tab for undergraduate programs. We wish we had the same data to support graduate programs; however, we think the undergraduate data is a good starting point for judging overall quality.
- Credit for Military Training
- Dedicated point of contact for support services for veterans, military servicemembers, and their families
- Member of Servicemembers Opportunity Colleges
- Yellow Ribbon Program
Research
The library is the backbone of academic learning and research
A rigorous academic program requires that students and faculty alike are engaging in independent research, and that activity requires strong library support. You can get some useful information here:
- How strong and how balanced between traditional physical books and easily-accessed (but expensive) electronic journals and other resources is this library?
- How much is this library borrowing from other libraries? The number of interlibrary loans received can indicate the school's commitment to getting the resources on-campus researchers need, and also of the research activity on campus.
- How big a resource is this library to other libraries? A large number of outgoing interlibrary loans speaks highly of the value of its content.
The presence of a library in and of itself is a good thing. Increasingly, libraries are comfortable and inviting spaces for individual and group study sessions. Librarians can be incredibly friendly guides in your quest to find materials that aid your learning.
Comparison of library resources per student
How do the per-student library resources at Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico - Ponce compare to other schools?
Comparison of library loans per student
A small library could make up for a small collection by allowing a large number of interlibrary loans to be received. An excellent library can show its strength by its number of loans given.
Research funding: the best indicator of post-baccalaureate academic rigor
Any school that reports at least $150,000 in research and development expenditures in a given year should have submitted out the Higher Education Research and Development (HERD) survey to the National Science Foundation (NSF). We did not find HERD data for $Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico - Ponce, so there would at most modest graduate-level academic scholarship campus-wide.
Student Body
Undergraduate Study Types
About 89% of undergraduate students are full-time. About 3% of undergraduate students take all of their courses via distance education, while another 27% take some courses online.
Undergraduate Full-time
Undergraduate Online classes
Context: Student body size
Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico - Ponce enrolled 7,697 students over the past academic year. The the student body size is larger than 75% of the context schools.
Undergraduate student gender
Is the gender balance of Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico - Ponce undergraduate students important to you? You can see the breakdown in this donut chart.
Gender
Men
Women
Undergraduate student race/origin
Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico - Ponce reports that 99% of undergraduate students are minority, which is near the middle of the context schools. Similarly, this school's 0.3% of international students representing 5 countries is near the middle proportion of international students within the context schools.
Race/Origin
White
Black
Hispanic
Asian
Not Reported
International
Fewer details
Context: Gender Balance
It is very difficult for many types of schools to achieve a gender balance, and this context is valuable in evaluating the balance at Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico - Ponce.
Context: Percentage of women
With 61% women undergraduate , Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico - Ponce ranks near the middle of context schools in its percentage of women undergraduate students.
Context: Undergraduate student race/origin
Here is how Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico - Ponce compares to the rest of the context group in terms of diversity in the student race and origin.
Freshman residences
A high proportion of international and out-of-state students speaks to reputation and offers an opportunity for diverse interactions in and out of class.
Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico - Ponce has undergraduates from 30 states or territories and 5 countries.
Freshman residence
In-state
Out-of-state
International
Not Reported
Undergraduate student age distribution
The age distribution at a school can tell you a lot about its mission. If you're looking for a traditional undergraduate experience, you may prefer to see students who are mostly younger than 25 (lighter shades), but if you want support as a returning student, a large number of students 25 and older (darker shades) may better suit your needs.
Age range
Under 18
18-19
20-21
22-24
25-29
30-34
35-39
40-49
50-64
School Finances
Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico - Ponce: What its budget can tell you about classroom quality
Where a school spends and collects its money can suggest a lot about the educational experience it offers. The tabs below offer a look at spending that is important for the quality of your experience if you attend.
Instructional spending
Student services spending
Research spending
Context and trends: Instructional expenditures per student
Instructional expenses are primarily the salary and benefits paid to the heart of a school: its full-time instructors. High expenditures in this area suggest care in hiring enough highly qualified full-time faculty to provide personal attention and up-to-date subject-area excellence.
Fewer details
Does incoming revenue consistently cover expenses?
Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico - Ponce is a private not-for-profit school. Along with publicly-controlled schools, not-for-profit schools do not have the goal of annual profit, but they do want to have healthy finances with adequate revenue to meet all expenses. On the other hand, private for-profit schools have creating a profit for shareholders as an annual goal.
Total revenue and expenses by category
We divided revenue and expenses for Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico - Ponce into categories to give some insight to what may have influenced peaks and ditches in the chart above. The purple shades correspond most directly to student education. The blue shades, auxiliary expenses and revenue, are often related to room and board. We show investment gains and losses in apricot.
Investment gains
Auxiliary revenue
Tuition and fees revenue
Government appropriations etc.
Private and capital gifts
Educational sales revenue
Other revenue
Investment losses
Auxilliary expenses
Instructional expenses
Student services expenses
Academic support expenses
Institutional support expenses
Research expenses
Public service expenses
Other expenses
Not so much?
The power of a large endowment
Related to the previous question of whether the annual revenue stream is stable is the question, "How deep are this school's pockets?" For many schools, a major source of annual income is investment growth. Schools with large endowments have a built-in revenue stream, although you'll see in the accompanying graphs that this revenue stream is highly dependent on the nation's economy. You can choose how to examine the depth of Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico - Ponce's resources by selecting from the buttons below.
Choose asset category
Net Assets
Total Endowment
Endowment Growth Rate
Net Assets Per Student
Here we examine assets at Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico - Ponce in context, and it seems most fair to adjust for the size of the institution. We examine the assets per full-time-equivalent student so that we level the playing field for size.
There's a catch to these assets, though. Many gifts to a school's endowment have strings attached; the money is restricted to a specific purpose. Assets shown in green below are unrestricted, and are very important to a school's ability to meet its financial obligations. Some assets are the land and buildings that a school must have in order to function, and these may appear as green (unrestricted assets) but are nonetheless less helpful in meeting annual financial commitments. This look at assets is only a piece of the puzzle as we decide if a school is stable.
Restricted net assets
Unrestricted net assets
Context: 2019 net assets per student
