I am not here to tell you whether Chatham is the right school for your child. I do not know that, and no one who does not know both of you knows it. I am here to do something more modest and, I believe, more useful: put in front of you what the United States government reported about this institution, translated into language that does not require having studied statistics or education policy. With that piece in hand, you will be able to bring together what your child wants and what your family can afford, and decide with more clarity than you had before reading this.
What Kind of School Chatham Is
Chatham University is a private, nonprofit, four-year institution located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, within Allegheny County. It is in the Pittsburgh metropolitan area, in a principal city with a population of 250,000 or more according to the census code. That does not tell you how to get to campus or what is nearby; if your child plans to live at home, drive the route yourself on a weekday at the time of your child’s classes. A map almost never gives you the real travel time.
The Carnegie system, which classifies United States colleges and universities by what they do, places Chatham among doctoral and professional universities. In its most recent profile based on 2019-20 data, it appears as a small, highly residential four-year school: at that time, at least half of degree-seeking undergraduate students lived in institution-owned or institution-affiliated housing, and at least 80 out of every 100 studied full time. Keep something important in mind: being “highly residential” does not mean that living on campus is included in tuition. Room and board are charged separately, and we will look at that later.
It also appears in a separate 2021 profile among institutions that receive many transfer students. If your child plans to come here after studying somewhere else, this is a sign that it is worth asking, but it guarantees nothing: ask in writing which courses will count and which will not. The Carnegie label does not say how many credits students bring with them or how many they lose in the transition.
IPEDS—the federal data system underlying this entire article—records the doctorate as the highest level Chatham reports offering and classifies it as a degree-granting institution that awards primarily bachelor’s degrees or higher. None of these institutional facts tells you whether the exact program your child is interested in exists today or whether it provides a smooth path from undergraduate to graduate study. That must be verified program by program, not through the general category.
One point is worth making clear from the beginning: Chatham University does not appear under any of the three designations the government tracks—it is not a historically Black college or university, a tribal college or university, or a land-grant institution. That says nothing about which students it serves or how your child will feel there. You find that out by asking which cultural centers and student organizations exist today and by talking with someone who already studies there.
Who Will Share the Classroom With Your Child
This is where the numbers begin to form a picture. Of the undergraduate students Chatham reported in the fall of 2023, 5 out of every 100 were Hispanic or Latino. That is a small minority: compared with 941 selective private four-year schools in this same census, Chatham falls in the bottom quarter. Three out of four similar schools reported a higher proportion.
Having few Latino students does not make a school bad, nor does having many make it good. It is simply a fact about who is enrolled. If your child will be one of the few, the question that actually matters is which groups and support services exist, and that is answered by talking with a current student, not by this figure.
As for the rest of the composition: women are a clear majority among undergraduates, at 70 out of every 100. Students ages 25 to 64—those returning to school as adults—are few, at 14 out of every 100. And just over half of new students, 65 out of every 100, reported a permanent address in Pennsylvania when applying for admission. It is a school with a strong local presence, but it is not exclusively local.
In terms of size, Chatham had 2,319 students enrolled in the official fall count. It is midsized, within the range of 1,000 to 4,999, and ranks right in the middle among its peers. But there is something I want you to look at carefully: that total is divided between 1,507 undergraduate students and 812 graduate students. If your child is entering a bachelor’s degree program, the number that matters to your child is 1,507, not the total. The total is inflated by people who have already completed an undergraduate degree.
How the Academic Year Is Organized
Chatham operates on semesters: two long terms of about 15 weeks each. It also reported that it accepts prior credit through two routes: AP exams and what IPEDS calls credit for life experiences—independent study, adult courses, work experience, portfolios, licenses, or certifications, including military training. It also enrolls high school students in college courses for credit through a formal dual-enrollment program.
Here is the hard truth that I cannot soften: the fact that the school reports these routes does not mean it will give your child credit for every AP exam your child brings. It does not say what scores are required or how many credits are awarded. Ask for the equivalency evaluation in writing before enrolling. Do not budget for savings in time or money until you have it in hand.
As for what students study there: in the most recently reported year, Chatham awarded 266 bachelor’s degrees across 20 fields of study. No field accounts for a large share—the largest was biological and biomedical sciences, with only 15 out of every 100 degrees awarded that year. It is a broad, distributed range of offerings, not a school built around a single flagship major. But 20 fields with data are not 20 specific majors: one field groups several programs together. Verify the exact program your child is interested in.
The student-to-instructional-staff ratio is 10 to 1, a low figure compared with similar schools. It is an institution-wide aggregate: it does not tell you the size of first-year classes or guarantee more individual attention. It is useful information, not a promise.
Chatham also reports structured academic opportunities: study abroad, cocurricular undergraduate research, and several pathways related to teacher certification, including state approval of the program. If your child’s major follows that path, it is worth asking for the details.
Getting Into Chatham: How Difficult It Is
Here we reach one of the parts that causes families the most anxiety, so let us take it slowly and use the exact numbers.
Chatham does not have open admissions. It reports three required admission criteria: the high school record, the high school GPA, and an English proficiency exam for applicants to whom it applies. Other items are not required but are considered if submitted: class rank, the courses taken, the personal essay, letters of recommendation, a portfolio or competency exam, work experience, and whether a family member studied there. That last item—legacy status—is something your child cannot change. If it does not apply to your child, do not spend energy on it. Spend it on what is within your child’s control.
The published undergraduate application fee is $0.
Now for the actual admission numbers. Of the 4,169 first-year applicants in the 2023 cycle, 2,923 received an offer of admission. That is 70 out of every 100. Compared with 942 similar selective private schools, this is a typical rate, a little below the midpoint of the group. Seven or eight out of ten received a yes. That does not make admission automatic, but it does give your child a real reason to submit the application on time.
Here is something I do want you to understand clearly, because it is often misunderstood: out of every 100 admitted students, only 11 enrolled. Of every nine who received a yes, about one ended up attending. The others already had a place here and chose something else. Do not read that as a mark against the school: the federal record does not say why each person made that decision. And what others decided does not tell you what the school will offer your child. What I will tell you is this: wait for your letter with the net price before deciding whether this school stays on your list.
Regarding standardized tests: the SAT and ACT are not required. If your child submits them, they are considered; if not, the application remains active just the same. Among those who enrolled, 28 out of every 100 submitted SAT scores, and among them, the middle half scored between 550 and 670 in reading and writing and between 520 and 620 in mathematics. Those numbers apply only to students who enrolled and submitted scores, not to all applicants. That 550 is not a minimum for admission, and that 670 does not guarantee anything either.
Regarding transfers: from a cohort of bachelor’s-degree-seeking students who entered in 2017, 24 out of every 100 transferred without finishing there and enrolled at another school. This is a typical rate compared with similar schools, slightly above the midpoint. Transferring is not failing. On the other hand, in the fall of 2023, 84 undergraduate students entered Chatham for the first time after studying elsewhere—this is a separate count and should not be subtracted from or compared with the outgoing count. If your child plans to transfer to or from Chatham, ask in writing, with the course list in hand, which credits will be accepted. This figure does not tell you.
The Real Cost: The Number That Actually Matters
At Chatham University, among 33 first-time, full-time, credential-seeking students who received federal Title IV aid and whose EFC records showed family income below $30,000, the average net price was $20,839. Among 25 students in the same population with EFC family income from $48,001 to $75,000, it was $22,983; among 149 students with EFC family income above $110,000, it was $27,814. For dependent students, the range combines their parents’ income with their own.
The difference between the average for the lowest-income band (33 students) and the average for the highest-income band (149 students) is $6,975. Among first-year students who received any grant or scholarship, the average was $29,051.
Even after grants and scholarships were deducted, the average net price for the lowest-income families was $20,839 in the 2022-23 academic year. If that number does not fit your budget, it is better to see it today than in August.
An average does not show how different the cases within that band were; these data do not support claiming that some families were far below or above the published figure. The income bands on this profile describe first-time, full-time, credential-seeking students who received federal Title IV aid; at public institutions, they use the in-state or in-district rate. The overall average with grants and scholarships, when shown, describes first-time, full-time, credential-seeking students who received federal, state, local, or institutional grants or scholarships.
Financial Aid and Loans
The good news, within this context, is that 99 out of every 100 degree-seeking students at Chatham received some grant or scholarship aid that does not have to be repaid. Receiving something here is the rule, not the exception. Among those who received it, the average was $25,627 per year. But an average hides a great deal: some received much more and some received much less. That money is real, but it is not a price. What determines the cost is the amount left after aid, and that must be requested from each school.
The Pell Grant—federal aid for low-income families—reached 26 out of every 100 students.
Now, the loans. In 2022-23, 64 out of every 100 Chatham undergraduate students received a federal loan. That is a high proportion: compared with similar schools, Chatham is on the side with more students carrying debt. Among those who borrowed, each received an average of $5,584 that year. If your child borrowed a similar amount each year over the four years of the degree program, the total would be around $22,336, excluding interest and not including loans taken out separately by parents or debt with banks or credit cards. That calculation should be made before the first signature, not at the end.
Chatham also reports a tuition installment payment plan and participation in a Promise program, two mechanisms worth asking the financial aid office about if your family needs to spread out the payments.
Campus Life, Athletics, and Support
Chatham does have institution-owned housing. It does not require all first-time, full-time students to live there—that answers a specific question and does not mean that no individual program has its own requirement. It also offers meal plans, including a large plan with a fixed number of meals per week. The reported maximum housing capacity is 757 students. The existence of housing does not guarantee a bed; ask in writing for this year’s rate, the housing application deadline, and whether you are guaranteed a place or put on a waiting list.
Regarding ROTC: Chatham did not mark any ROTC opportunity in its most recent report. That does not prove there is no nearby option—it only means that field was not marked. If that scholarship matters to your family, ask the admissions office directly before assuming it is unavailable.
Regarding athletics: Chatham does compete in intercollegiate sports and is affiliated with the NCAA, with reported membership in basketball, baseball, and cross-country or track and field. This does not say which division each sport competes in or whether it offers athletic scholarships. If your child wants to continue competing, write directly to the coach of that sport and ask for the response in writing.
Regarding instructional format: Chatham offers distance education at the undergraduate and graduate levels, although it is the exception rather than the rule: only 8 out of every 100 undergraduate students took all their classes at a distance; the other 92 took at least one class in person. The library operates with paid staff and spending above the $100,000 threshold tracked by the government, with physical and digital collections and interlibrary lending. And among the reported services are combined academic and career counseling, employment services for students, participation in the Yellow Ribbon program for veterans, and a published webpage for disability services. None of these fields measures quality or effectiveness; they are reported services, and it is wise to verify them directly.
Who Stays and Who Finishes
This section answers a question every family asks silently: if my child enrolls here, how likely is it that my child will stay and finish?
Of the full-time, bachelor’s-degree-seeking class that entered in the fall of 2022, 79 out of every 100 were still enrolled at Chatham or had already graduated one year later. This retention rate is a little above the midpoint compared with similar schools. Two things this number does not tell you: it does not distinguish those still enrolled from those who had already graduated, and not everyone who did not return stopped studying—someone who transferred and continues studying elsewhere is counted the same as someone who left school entirely.
As for graduation: of the 284 first-time, full-time students who began a bachelor’s degree program in 2017, 188 had graduated from Chatham within six years. That is 66 out of every 100. By four years, the figure was already 60 out of every 100—only 6 points lower than at six years, a small gap that says something positive about the school’s pace. Compared with nearly a thousand similar schools, Chatham ranks above the group median.
But there is something I must tell you with complete honesty: the available data do not allow us to fully reconstruct what happened to the other third. We do not know whether they transferred, paused their studies, or dropped out. A missing row does not become zero.
A broader eight-year measure follows a different cohort: 382 students who entered between July 2015 and June 2016, including part-time students and those who already had prior postsecondary experience. As of August 2023, 67 out of every 100 had earned a degree or certificate from Chatham. Among Pell Grant recipients, the figure was 63 out of every 100—seven points below the group without Pell Grants. And 10 out of every 100 had an unknown enrollment status: the report simply could not determine whether they were still enrolled elsewhere. Unknown does not mean they were not studying; it means the data could not see it.
What This Article Cannot Tell You
This article does not address what happens after graduation—earnings, employment, or debt at the time of graduation. Those data require another source, and you will not find them here or in any report that uses only what Chatham submitted to IPEDS.
How to Use All of This
You now have an in-depth understanding of one of the pieces you need to make a decision about Chatham University: who studies there, how selective it is, how much it costs in practice, and how likely a student is to enter and finish.
That piece alone does not decide anything. It is missing what your child wants to study and what your child has already built to get this far—that is your child’s part, not yours. And it is missing what your family can and is willing to pay, something only you can calculate with the financial aid letter in hand, not from the list price.
If you live near Pittsburgh, the question of living at home or on campus has real weight in the budget. If your child wants a major outside the school’s most common fields, it is worth confirming whether the exact program exists and how strong it is. If money is the biggest concern, the number you should pursue is not the listed $61,634, but the net price that arrives in your own letter.
It is your child’s responsibility to study, work hard, decide which career path to pursue, and take responsibility for their part of the journey. It is your responsibility to understand the family’s finances, ask the remaining questions in writing, and provide support without carrying the full burden of deciding for your child. Do not go through the process for your child. Go through it with your child.
Source note: the information in this article comes from data reported by Chatham University to the United States Department of Education’s IPEDS (Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System), primarily from the 2022-23 and 2023-24 cycles, and from the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. Best College Aid does not represent Chatham University or any government agency; this article organizes and explains public information.