Cecil College
Public Community College in North East, MD. Six-year graduation rate 37%. Median 10-year earnings $43,952.
Students who entered Cecil College land at a median of $43,952 a decade later, close to what most four-year schools deliver. Only 37% finish within six years, so roughly three in five students leave without the credential they enrolled for. Graduates leave owing a median of $9,536 — 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 0.22 — healthy (below the 0.40 threshold)
- ✓ 3-year loan default 0.0% — below national benchmark
Academics
Completion is the problem here: 37% graduate within six years. First-year retention is 62% — the single largest point of attrition on this campus. Retention and completion are close, which places the gap between entering and finishing almost entirely in year one. A 17% 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. The part-time picture is harder: 48% return, against 62% full-time.
Financial Aid
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · grant and loan rates against 1,369 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
Students pay an average of $10,128 annually, well below typical undergraduate net price. Income makes less difference than usual: $7,850 at $0–30k, $13,157 at $110k+. Grant aid reaches 61% of students at an average of $3,745. 11% borrow federally — a low rate, though it covers federal loans only.
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 · 219 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 | $7,850 |
| $30–48k | $9,601 |
| $48–75k | $9,102 |
| $75–110k | $12,875 |
| $110k+ | $13,157 |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 157 of these 1,369 students, totalling $816,759 — an average of $5,202 each.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (Cecil 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)