Central Alabama
Community College
Public Community College in Alexander City, AL. Six-year graduation rate 33%. Median 10-year earnings $33,506.
Median earnings ten years after entry come to $33,506, below what most undergraduate institutions return — the central fact to weigh against cost here. Only 33% finish within six years, so roughly two in three students leave without the credential they enrolled for. Graduates leave owing a median of $9,766 — 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 0.29 — healthy (below the 0.40 threshold)
- ✓ 3-year loan default 0.0% — below national benchmark
- ! Graduation rate 33% — below national average
Academics
Completion is the problem here: 33% graduate within six years. First-year retention is 60% — the single largest point of attrition on this campus. 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. 37% of students transfer out, which reframes what the graduation rate above is measuring. Retention drops to 31% 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 1,134 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
Average net price after grant aid is $16,072 a year — mid-range for a four-year institution. The gap between the $0–30k and $110k+ bands is narrow ($15,042 versus $18,997), meaning aid is not strongly need-weighted. Grant aid reaches 69% of students at an average of $5,573. 29% of students take federal loans, a middling borrowing rate.
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 · 274 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 | $15,042 |
| $30–48k | $13,909 |
| $48–75k | $16,172 |
| $75–110k | $19,426 |
| $110k+ | $18,997 |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 324 of these 1,134 students, totalling $1,211,951 — an average of $3,741 each.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (Tallapoosa 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)