Bellus Academy-El Cajon
For-profit College in El Cajon, CA. Six-year graduation rate 72%. Median 10-year earnings $30,807.
Median earnings ten years after entry come to $30,807, below what most undergraduate institutions return — the central fact to weigh against cost here. Completion is a strength: 72% of students finish within six years. Median debt at graduation is $6,333, a light load against those earnings.
Earnings: College Scorecard, median ten years after entry across students who received federal aid — completers and non-completers alike.
- ✓ Debt-to-income ratio 0.21 — healthy (below the 0.40 threshold)
- ✓ 3-year loan default 0.0% — below national benchmark
Academics
Six-year completion runs to 72% — students who start here overwhelmingly finish here. 100% of full-time first-years return for a second year — a healthy figure. That gap between coming back and finishing is where this school loses people — after the first year, not during it. A 11:1 ratio points to small classes and accessible faculty. Being a for-profit short-program school is the single most useful context for these numbers — the sector's spread is wide enough that the school-level figures matter more than usual.
Financial Aid
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · grant and loan rates against 318 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
Average net price — what students actually pay after grant aid — is $30,049 a year, at the high end of undergraduate cost. Income makes less difference than usual: $30,049 at $0–30k, $30,576 at $75–110k. Grant aid reaches 68% of students at an average of $5,341. Federal borrowing reaches 53% of students.
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 · 2 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 | $30,049 |
| $30–48k | — |
| $48–75k | — |
| $75–110k | $30,576 |
| $110k+ | — |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 167 of these 318 students, totalling $1,241,132 — an average of $7,432 each.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (San Diego 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)