Garden City
Community College
Public Community College in Garden City, KS. Six-year graduation rate 50%. Median 10-year earnings $41,704.
Median earnings ten years after entry come to $41,704, below what most undergraduate institutions return — the central fact to weigh against cost here. The six-year graduation rate is 50%, meaning about one in two students who start do not finish. Graduates leave owing a median of $6,500 — 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 0.16 — healthy (below the 0.40 threshold)
- ✓ 3-year loan default 0.0% — below national benchmark
Academics
50% graduate within six years — average, but that average still hides a large group who do not. 67% of full-time first-years come back for year two, so about one in three are gone before sophomore year. Retention and graduation track closely, so most of the attrition shows up in the first year rather than after it. Transfer-out runs to 16% — common enough at this school that the completion rate is measuring a smaller group than the entering class. Part-time students fare worse, returning at 40% — relevant if you plan to work while enrolled.
Financial Aid
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · grant and loan rates against 1,321 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
Students pay an average of $10,047 annually, well below typical undergraduate net price. The gap between the $0–30k and $110k+ bands is narrow ($6,672 versus $12,430), meaning aid is not strongly need-weighted. Grant aid reaches 72% of students at an average of $5,691. Only 15% 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 · 432 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 | $6,672 |
| $30–48k | $7,191 |
| $48–75k | $9,191 |
| $75–110k | $10,633 |
| $110k+ | $12,430 |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 203 of these 1,321 students, totalling $1,050,417 — an average of $5,174 each.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (Finney 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)