Great Basin College
Public Community College in Elko, NV. Six-year graduation rate 24%. Median 10-year earnings $39,289.
Median earnings ten years after entry come to $39,289, below what most undergraduate institutions return — the central fact to weigh against cost here. Only 24% finish within six years, so roughly three in four students leave without the credential they enrolled for. Median debt at graduation is $15,750, a light load against those earnings. On economic mobility, 2.2% of students travel from the bottom income quintile to the top.
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
- ! Graduation rate 24% — below national average
Academics
Only 24% finish within six years, so roughly three in four students leave without the credential. Retention is weak: only 59% of full-time first-years return, so roughly two in five leave after one year. 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. Transfer-out runs to 22% — common enough at this school that the completion rate is measuring a smaller group than the entering class. The student-faculty ratio is 18:1 — typical, which in practice means large lectures early and smaller classes in the major.
Financial Aid
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · grant and loan rates against 1,900 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
Students pay an average of $8,193 annually, well below typical undergraduate net price. The gap between the $0–30k and $110k+ bands is narrow ($6,967 versus $12,947), meaning aid is not strongly need-weighted. Only 49% of students receive grant aid, so most families are paying near the published price. Only 7% 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 · 142 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 | $6,967 |
| $30–48k | $7,631 |
| $48–75k | $9,639 |
| $75–110k | $11,910 |
| $110k+ | $12,947 |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 142 of these 1,900 students, totalling $1,005,622 — an average of $7,082 each.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (Elko 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)