-77%
Undergraduate enrollment
Undergraduate enrollment at Aspen University fell 77% between 2021 and 2024 (6.3k → 1.5k).
Arizona · Private for-profit · Predominantly bachelor's
Aspen University
Phoenix, Arizona. 2,396 undergraduate students. 27 programs in the federal Field-of-Study dataset.
ANOMALY ENGINE · NOTABLE SIGNALS
What the data flags at Aspen University
Short-arc shifts (recent 3-year window), peer outliers, earnings trend breaks, completion drops, enrollment cliffs, and debt-to-earnings warnings — surfaced deterministically from the federal record. Multi-decade shifts are reported separately in the Long Arc section, since 25-year tuition drift isn't really an anomaly.
-51%
Undergraduate enrollment
Undergraduate enrollment fell 51% at Aspen University vs the 2018–2022 baseline (2.4k vs 4.9k).
-38%
First-year retention
First-year retention at Aspen University fell 38% between 2019 and 2022 (80.0% → 49.7%).
+34%
In-state tuition
In-state tuition at Aspen University rose 34% between 2021 and 2024 ($5.1k → $6.9k).
SECTION 01 · OUTCOMES SNAPSHOT
The numbers, vs. Arizona
Each tile compares this institution to the Arizona median for the same metric. Sub-line shows the comparison value, not an interpretation. Sparklines trace the federally available history.
—+53% · 6→8y
Arizona median $39,817$29,448
Treasury earnings · 6y post-entry—+9% · '17→'24
Arizona median 43.0%$7,802+22% · '16→'20
At program completion2,396+911% · '09→'24
latest IPEDS—+49% · '09→'22
first-time, full-time—
latest cohort$6,264+12% · '12→'24
out-of-state $6,264SECTION 02 · EARNINGS HORIZONS
How earnings spread, 4 to 10 years after entry
Treasury tax-record earnings for federally aided students who first enrolled at this institution. Each point is a horizon from the most-recent vintage. Single median per horizon (no p25/p75 publishing).
Earnings widen with time post-entry. Selection: federal-aid recipients only — not all graduates.Methodology →
SECTION 04 · LONG ARC
Ten-plus year arc
Federally available history. Coverage varies by metric — IPEDS publishes some series only after 2009 and others only before.
Undergraduate enrollment.
150%-time completion rate.
Median federal student debt at exit.
+49%
Aspen University · retention rose
33.3% → 49.7%
+661%
Aspen University · undergrad enrollment rose
145 → 1,466
+22%
Aspen University · median debt rose
$12,875 → $15,756
+184%
Aspen University · pell share rose
0.6% → 9.8%
SECTION 07 · SIMILAR INSTITUTIONS
Same sector and degree mix in Arizona
Picked by Carnegie sector × predominant credential level. These are not rankings — just nearest-neighbour surfaces for comparison.
CAUSAL DISCIPLINE
“Aspen University graduates earn $X” — not “Aspen University makes you earn $X”
Median earnings describe what cohorts earned. They do not describe what attending Aspen University caused. Selection effects (who admits, who enrolls, who completes) are real. We publish federal data with strict descriptive phrasing — and link the methodology where you can read about the limitations directly.