Great Bay
Community College
Public Community College in Portsmouth, NH. Six-year graduation rate 34%. Median 10-year earnings $42,397.
Ten years after entry, the median Great Bay Community College student earns $42,397 — a solidly middle-of-the-pack result for an undergraduate institution. Completion is the weak point: 34% graduate within six years. Graduates leave owing a median of $13,828 — 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 0.33 — healthy (below the 0.40 threshold)
- ✓ 3-year loan default 0.0% — below national benchmark
- ! 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 66% — the single largest point of attrition on this campus. That gap between coming back and finishing is where this school loses people — after the first year, not during it. A 23% 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. Retention drops to 51% for part-time students, a gap worth weighing if full-time study is not realistic.
Financial Aid
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · grant and loan rates against 1,240 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
Average net price after grant aid is $15,513 a year — mid-range for a four-year institution. Aid is steeply need-based: families in the $0–30k band pay $13,237 while those at $110k+ pay $21,963. Only 43% of students receive grant aid, so most families are paying near the published price. 27% 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 · 156 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 | $13,237 |
| $30–48k | $21,132 |
| $48–75k | $21,725 |
| $75–110k | $20,829 |
| $110k+ | $21,963 |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 338 of these 1,240 students, totalling $2,112,984 — an average of $6,251 each.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (Rockingham 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)