Cape Fear
Community College
Public Community College in Wilmington, NC. Six-year graduation rate 34%. Median 10-year earnings $38,654.
Median earnings ten years after entry come to $38,654, below what most undergraduate institutions return — the central fact to weigh against cost here. Only 35% finish within six years, so roughly two in three students leave without the credential they enrolled for. Median debt at graduation is $9,500, 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
- ! Graduation rate 34% — below national average
Academics
Completion is the problem here: 35% graduate within six years. 67% of full-time first-years come back for year two, so about one in three are gone before sophomore year. 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. The part-time picture is harder: 56% return, against 67% full-time. At 13:1, students get materially more instructor contact than at a typical public university.
Financial Aid
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · grant and loan rates against 9,513 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
Students pay an average of $9,900 annually, well below typical undergraduate net price. Income makes less difference than usual: $7,221 at $0–30k, $14,507 at $110k+. Only 34% of students receive grant aid, so most families are paying near the published price. Only 6% 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 · 913 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 | $7,221 |
| $30–48k | $11,035 |
| $48–75k | $10,335 |
| $75–110k | $14,030 |
| $110k+ | $14,507 |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 601 of these 9,513 students, totalling $3,625,583 — an average of $6,033 each.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (New Hanover 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)