Butler Community College
Public Community College in El Dorado, KS. Six-year graduation rate 32%. Median 10-year earnings $41,206.
Ten-year median earnings of $41,206 are on the low side, which raises the bar for what this degree needs to cost. Only 32% finish within six years, so roughly two in three students leave without the credential they enrolled for. Median debt at graduation is $10,500, 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 0.25 — healthy (below the 0.40 threshold)
- ✓ 3-year loan default 0.0% — below national benchmark
- ! Mobility score 0.9 — limited economic uplift documented
- ! Graduation rate 32% — below national average
Academics
A six-year graduation rate of 32% means finishing is closer to the exception than the rule. Retention of 63% means a meaningful slice of each entering class does not return. 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. Transfer-out runs to 24% — 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 5,694 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
Net price lands at $16,865 a year on average, neither cheap nor punishing. The gap between the $0–30k and $110k+ bands is narrow ($13,485 versus $20,810), meaning aid is not strongly need-weighted. About 57% get grants averaging $4,120, so plan on the possibility of paying closer to full price. Federal borrowing is uncommon here at 20% 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 · 1,012 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 | $13,485 |
| $30–48k | $16,423 |
| $48–75k | $16,840 |
| $75–110k | $17,258 |
| $110k+ | $20,810 |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 1,160 of these 5,694 students, totalling $6,823,899 — an average of $5,883 each.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (Butler 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)