Elgin Community College
Public Community College in Elgin, IL. Six-year graduation rate 41%. Median 10-year earnings $45,516.
Students who entered Elgin Community College land at a median of $45,516 a decade later, close to what most four-year schools deliver. Six-year completion sits at 41%, near the national average for undergraduate institutions. Median debt at graduation is $7,390, a light load against those earnings.
Earnings: College Scorecard, median ten years after entry across students who received federal aid — completers and non-completers alike.
- ✓ Debt-to-income ratio 0.16 — healthy (below the 0.40 threshold)
- ✓ 3-year loan default 0.0% — below national benchmark
Academics
Completion is middling: 41% finish inside six years. First-year retention is 77% — 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. 18% transfer out. IPEDS does not follow them, so whether they finished elsewhere is not recorded either way. Retention drops to 57% 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 6,463 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
At $5,020 a year on average after grant aid, cost is low here relative to most undergraduate institutions. Income makes less difference than usual: $5,089 at $0–30k, $9,083 at $110k+. 36% get grants, which means the net price above will not apply to most applicants. Only 4% 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 · 904 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 | $5,089 |
| $30–48k | $5,006 |
| $48–75k | $6,816 |
| $75–110k | $8,562 |
| $110k+ | $9,083 |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 238 of these 6,463 students, totalling $1,074,305 — an average of $4,514 each.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (Kane 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)