Aiken Technical College
Public Community College in Graniteville, SC. Six-year graduation rate 34%. Median 10-year earnings $39,225.
Median earnings ten years after entry come to $39,225, below what most undergraduate institutions return — the central fact to weigh against cost here. Completion is the weak point: 34% graduate within six years. Borrowing stays contained, with median debt at graduation of $12,250.
Earnings: College Scorecard, median ten years after entry across students who received federal aid — completers and non-completers alike.
- ✓ Debt-to-income ratio 0.31 — healthy (below the 0.40 threshold)
- ✓ 3-year loan default 0.0% — below national benchmark
- ! Graduation rate 34% — below national average
Academics
Completion is the problem here: 34% graduate within six years. Retention is weak: only 53% of full-time first-years return, so roughly one in two leave after one year. The two rates sit near each other: few students who return for a second year are missing from the six-year completion figure. Transfer-out runs to 17% — common enough at this school that the completion rate is measuring a smaller group than the entering class. Retention drops to 38% for part-time students, a gap worth weighing if full-time study is not realistic.
Financial Aid
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · grant and loan rates against 1,911 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
Students pay an average of $5,442 annually, well below typical undergraduate net price. The gap between the $0–30k and $110k+ bands is narrow ($4,566 versus $10,230), meaning aid is not strongly need-weighted. 89% of students get grant aid averaging $4,707, so the published price is a poor guide to what most pay. Only 15% take federal loans. Private borrowing is not captured in this figure.
Entering first-year students
A different, smaller group than the rates above: full-time students in their first year of college anywhere. The grant series here also excludes the "other sources" counted in the all-undergraduate figure, so the two are not comparable.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · 265 students
Net price by family income
The same students as the headline above, limited to those who received Title IV federal aid — a narrower group, with a lower overall average. IPEDS publishes no combined figure across these bands, so they should not be averaged into one.
| Family income band | Average net price |
|---|---|
| $0–30k | $4,566 |
| $30–48k | $2,659 |
| $48–75k | $6,048 |
| $75–110k | $9,207 |
| $110k+ | $10,230 |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 283 of these 1,911 students, totalling $1,791,584 — an average of $6,331 each.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (Aiken County) — budget these against any cost-of-attendance housing estimate.
HUD Fair Market Rents (40th-percentile gross rent incl. utilities) · FY2026
Veterans & GI Bill
VA GI Bill Comparison Tool (Veterans Affairs GIDS)