Forsyth Technical
Community College
Public Community College in Winston-Salem, NC. Six-year graduation rate 34%. Median 10-year earnings $34,139.
Median earnings ten years after entry come to $34,139, 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 $10,000 — 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 0.29 — healthy (below the 0.40 threshold)
- ✓ 3-year loan default 0.0% — below national benchmark
- ! Mobility score 0.5 — 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. First-year retention is 73% — the single largest point of attrition on this campus. Retention runs well ahead of completion, which means students are not leaving immediately; they are leaving somewhere between the second year and the finish line. A 12% transfer-out rate accounts for part of that gap: those students left for another institution rather than dropping out, and the graduation rate above counts them as non-completers here. The part-time picture is harder: 37% return, against 73% full-time.
Financial Aid
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · grant and loan rates against 6,939 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
Students pay an average of $6,917 annually, well below typical undergraduate net price. The gap between the $0–30k and $110k+ bands is narrow ($6,292 versus $12,993), meaning aid is not strongly need-weighted. Grant aid reaches 62% of students at an average of $4,463. Only 22% 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 · 518 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 | $6,292 |
| $30–48k | $6,955 |
| $48–75k | $7,827 |
| $75–110k | $10,834 |
| $110k+ | $12,993 |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 1,501 of these 6,939 students, totalling $7,383,615 — an average of $4,919 each.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (Forsyth 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)