Empire Beauty School-Thornton
For-profit College in Thornton, CO. Median 10-year earnings $24,397.
Median earnings ten years after entry come to $24,397, below what most undergraduate institutions return — the central fact to weigh against cost here. Median debt at graduation is $10,667, 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.
- ✓ 3-year loan default 0.0% — below national benchmark
Academics
The federal six-year graduation rate is not published here — typically because the entering cohort this measure follows is too small or too atypical to report. Treat completion as unknown rather than assuming either direction. 81% of full-time first-years return for a second year — a healthy figure. Retention drops to 67% for part-time students, a gap worth weighing if full-time study is not realistic. A 20:1 ratio is unremarkable; expect a mix of lecture halls and seminars. Being a for-profit short-program school is the single most useful context for these numbers — the sector's spread is wide enough that the school-level figures matter more than usual.
Financial Aid
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · grant and loan rates against 174 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
Students pay an average of $16,525 annually once grants are applied. Income makes less difference than usual: $15,641 at $0–30k, $19,535 at $110k+. Grant aid reaches 65% of students at an average of $5,063. Most students borrow — 55% 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 · 81 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 | $15,641 |
| $30–48k | $15,857 |
| $48–75k | $17,366 |
| $75–110k | $21,116 |
| $110k+ | $19,535 |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 95 of these 174 students, totalling $707,858 — an average of $7,451 each.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (Adams 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)