Berkshire Community College
Public Community College in Pittsfield, MA. Six-year graduation rate 20%. Median 10-year earnings $38,832.
Median earnings ten years after entry come to $38,832, below what most undergraduate institutions return — the central fact to weigh against cost here. Completion is the weak point: 20% graduate within six years. Graduates leave owing a median of $12,053 — modest by four-year standards.
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 20% — below national average
Academics
A six-year graduation rate of 20% means finishing is closer to the exception than the rule. Just 57% of first-years come back — most of the completion gap opens in year one. The distance between those two figures is the part worth noticing — students return for a second year at a much higher rate than they graduate, so attrition here is spread across the middle years rather than concentrated in the first. A 19% transfer-out rate accounts for part of that gap: those students left for another institution rather than dropping out, and the graduation rate above counts them as non-completers here.
Financial Aid
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · grant and loan rates against 1,168 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
At $9,660 a year on average after grant aid, cost is low here relative to most undergraduate institutions. Income makes less difference than usual: $7,797 at $0–30k, $13,265 at $110k+. Grant aid is widespread — 85% of students receive it, averaging $7,025. 42% of students take federal loans, a middling borrowing rate.
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 · 116 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 | $7,797 |
| $30–48k | $8,878 |
| $48–75k | $9,245 |
| $75–110k | $11,741 |
| $110k+ | $13,265 |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 492 of these 1,168 students, totalling $3,035,462 — an average of $6,170 each.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (Berkshire County) — budget these against any cost-of-attendance housing estimate.
HUD Fair Market Rents (40th-percentile gross rent incl. utilities) · FY2026
Veterans & GI Bill
Heightened Cash Monitoring (Compliance Audit Late or Missing); School placed on Heightened Cash Monitoring
VA GI Bill Comparison Tool (Veterans Affairs GIDS)