Dolce The Academy
For-profit College in Waterbury, CT.
- ✓ 3-year loan default 0.0% — below national benchmark
Academics
No six-year graduation rate is reported for this institution, which is common for schools whose students are mostly part-time, transfer in, or enroll in short programs that the federal cohort measure does not track. Its absence is not itself a bad sign, but it does remove the clearest completion signal. Retention is strong at 92%, and first-year attrition is where most degrees are lost. At 15:1, students get materially more instructor contact than at a typical public university. This is a for-profit short-program school. That is not disqualifying, but it does mean verifying accreditation, transferability of credits, and job-placement claims directly rather than trusting the category.
Financial Aid
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · grant and loan rates against 66 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
Students pay an average of $15,333 annually once grants are applied. 76% of students receive grant aid, averaging $4,748 — common but not automatic. Most students borrow — 71% take federal loans to cover the gap.
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 · 35 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 | $15,318 |
| $30–48k | — |
| $48–75k | — |
| $75–110k | — |
| $110k+ | — |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 47 of these 66 students, totalling $230,892 — an average of $4,913 each.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (Naugatuck Valley Planning Region) — budget these against any cost-of-attendance housing estimate.
HUD Fair Market Rents (40th-percentile gross rent incl. utilities) · FY2026