Columbia Basin College
Public Community College in Pasco, WA. Six-year graduation rate 33%. Median 10-year earnings $46,680.
Students who entered Columbia Basin College land at a median of $46,680 a decade later, close to what most four-year schools deliver. Only 33% finish within six years, so roughly two in three students leave without the credential they enrolled for. Borrowing stays contained, with median debt at graduation of $14,829.
Earnings: College Scorecard, median ten years after entry across students who received federal aid — completers and non-completers alike.
- ✓ Debt-to-income ratio 0.32 — healthy (below the 0.40 threshold)
- ✓ 3-year loan default 0.0% — below national benchmark
- ! Graduation rate 33% — below national average
Academics
Only 33% finish within six years, so roughly two in three students leave without the credential. A 12% 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. At 20:1, class sizes land in the normal range for an undergraduate institution. Judge these figures against other institutions of the same type — sector explains more of the variation in completion than any single campus factor. With 6,729 undergraduates, the school sits in the middle of the size distribution.
Financial Aid
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · grant and loan rates against 4,226 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
Students pay an average of $10,656 annually, well below typical undergraduate net price. Net price swings hard on family income here, from $7,010 at the $0–30k band to $17,228 at $110k+. Grant aid reaches 66% of students at an average of $7,413. Only 7% 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 · 965 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 | $7,010 |
| $30–48k | $7,642 |
| $48–75k | $9,595 |
| $75–110k | $11,019 |
| $110k+ | $17,228 |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 288 of these 4,226 students, totalling $2,043,130 — an average of $7,094 each.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (Franklin 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)