Ellsworth Community College
Public Community College in Iowa Falls, IA. Six-year graduation rate 38%. Median 10-year earnings $40,562.
Students who entered Ellsworth Community College reach a median of $40,562 a decade later, a figure that trails the typical four-year outcome. Only 38% finish within six years, so roughly three in five students leave without the credential they enrolled for. Borrowing stays contained, with median debt at graduation of $10,000.
Earnings: College Scorecard, median ten years after entry across students who received federal aid — completers and non-completers alike.
- ✓ Debt-to-income ratio 0.25 — healthy (below the 0.40 threshold)
- ✓ 3-year loan default 0.0% — below national benchmark
Academics
Completion is the problem here: 38% graduate within six years. Retention of 64% means a meaningful slice of each entering class does not return. 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. Transfer-out runs to 29% — common enough at this school that the completion rate is measuring a smaller group than the entering class. At 16:1, class sizes land in the normal range for an undergraduate institution.
Financial Aid
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · grant and loan rates against 546 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
Average net price is $11,920 a year after grant aid — low for a four-year institution, though your own figure depends on aid eligibility. Income makes less difference than usual: $9,121 at $0–30k, $14,742 at $110k+. Grant aid is widespread — 86% of students receive it, averaging $7,372. 46% 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 · 211 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 | $9,121 |
| $30–48k | $8,203 |
| $48–75k | $12,486 |
| $75–110k | $13,685 |
| $110k+ | $14,742 |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 251 of these 546 students, totalling $1,353,429 — an average of $5,392 each.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (Hardin 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)