Dyersburg State
Community College
Public Community College in Dyersburg, TN. Six-year graduation rate 34%. Median 10-year earnings $36,132.
Median earnings ten years after entry come to $36,132, below what most undergraduate institutions return — the central fact to weigh against cost here. Completion is the weak point: 34% graduate within six years. Graduates leave owing a median of $6,900 — 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 0.19 — healthy (below the 0.40 threshold)
- ✓ 3-year loan default 0.0% — below national benchmark
- ! Mobility score 0.9 — limited economic uplift documented
- ! Graduation rate 34% — below national average
Academics
Only 34% finish within six years, so roughly two in three students leave without the credential. 63% of full-time first-years come back for year two, so about two in five are gone before sophomore year. That gap between coming back and finishing is where this school loses people — after the first year, not during it. 12% transfer out. IPEDS does not follow them, so whether they finished elsewhere is not recorded either way. Retention drops to 46% 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 1,934 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
Students pay an average of $5,595 annually, well below typical undergraduate net price. The gap between the $0–30k and $110k+ bands is narrow ($4,213 versus $5,590), meaning aid is not strongly need-weighted. Grant aid is widespread — 90% of students receive it, averaging $6,322. Only 11% 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 · 476 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 | $4,213 |
| $30–48k | $3,603 |
| $48–75k | $6,093 |
| $75–110k | $7,322 |
| $110k+ | $5,590 |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 216 of these 1,934 students, totalling $1,229,058 — an average of $5,690 each.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (Dyer 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)