Carrington College-Mesa
For-profit College in Mesa, AZ. Six-year graduation rate 54%. Median 10-year earnings $36,718.
Ten-year median earnings of $36,718 are on the low side, which raises the bar for what this degree needs to cost. Six-year completion sits at 54%, near the national average for undergraduate institutions. 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 0.26 — healthy (below the 0.40 threshold)
- ✓ 3-year loan default 0.0% — below national benchmark
Academics
Completion is middling: 54% finish inside six years. Retention of 79% means a meaningful slice of each entering class does not return. 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. A 12:1 ratio points to small classes and accessible faculty. As a for-profit two-year institution, outcomes here deserve a harder look than the sector average suggests: for-profit institutions vary enormously, and the sector's aggregate numbers hide both strong and very weak performers.
Financial Aid
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · grant and loan rates against 815 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
Students pay $47,050 a year on average after aid, a premium price that the earnings data has to justify. The gap between the $0–30k and $110k+ bands is narrow ($48,159 versus $52,531), meaning aid is not strongly need-weighted. Grant aid reaches 53% of students at an average of $4,801. 66% of students borrow federally, so debt is the norm rather than the exception.
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 · 195 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 | $48,159 |
| $30–48k | $48,325 |
| $48–75k | $47,072 |
| $75–110k | $49,758 |
| $110k+ | $52,531 |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 540 of these 815 students, totalling $4,022,757 — an average of $7,450 each.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (Maricopa 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)