Brookdale Community College
Public Community College in Lincroft, NJ. Six-year graduation rate 30%. Median 10-year earnings $44,379.
Students who entered Brookdale Community College land at a median of $44,379 a decade later, close to what most four-year schools deliver. The six-year graduation rate is 30% — low enough that finishing cannot be treated as the default outcome. Median debt at graduation is $12,000, 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 0.27 — healthy (below the 0.40 threshold)
- ✓ 3-year loan default 0.1% — below national benchmark
- ! Graduation rate 30% — below national average
Academics
Completion is the problem here: 30% graduate within six years. 70% of full-time first-years come back for year two, so about one in three are gone before sophomore year. Retention runs well ahead of completion, which means students are not leaving immediately; they are leaving somewhere between the second year and the finish line. Transfer-out runs to 14% — common enough at this school that the completion rate is measuring a smaller group than the entering class. Retention drops to 58% 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 7,898 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
Students pay an average of $11,100 annually, well below typical undergraduate net price. Net price swings hard on family income here, from $9,052 at the $0–30k band to $17,851 at $110k+. Grant aid is limited — 42% of students receive any. Only 9% 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 · 1,258 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 | $9,052 |
| $30–48k | $9,276 |
| $48–75k | $11,633 |
| $75–110k | $13,997 |
| $110k+ | $17,851 |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 711 of these 7,898 students, totalling $3,922,679 — an average of $5,517 each.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (Monmouth 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)