Highline College
Public Community College in Des Moines, WA. Six-year graduation rate 35%. Median 10-year earnings $47,869.
Students who entered Highline College land at a median of $47,869 a decade later, close to what most four-year schools deliver. Only 36% finish within six years, so roughly two in three students leave without the credential they enrolled for. Graduates leave owing a median of $9,500 — modest by four-year standards. It also moves people — 2.3% of students climb from the bottom fifth of the income distribution to the top.
Earnings: College Scorecard, median ten years after entry across students who received federal aid — completers and non-completers alike.
- ✓ Debt-to-income ratio 0.20 — healthy (below the 0.40 threshold)
- ✓ 3-year loan default 0.0% — below national benchmark
Academics
Completion is the problem here: 36% graduate within six years. 20% transfer out. IPEDS does not follow them, so whether they finished elsewhere is not recorded either way. The 13:1 student-faculty ratio is small enough that seminar-sized classes are the norm. Judge these figures against other institutions of the same type — sector explains more of the variation in completion than any single campus factor. With 5,126 undergraduates, the school sits in the middle of the size distribution.
Financial Aid
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · grant and loan rates against 3,487 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
Average net price is $11,783 a year after grant aid — low for a four-year institution, though your own figure depends on aid eligibility. Income makes less difference than usual: $8,984 at $0–30k, $12,378 at $110k+. 51% of students receive grant aid, averaging $6,388 — common but not automatic. Federal borrowing is uncommon here at 3% of students.
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 · 411 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 | $8,984 |
| $30–48k | $9,689 |
| $48–75k | $11,209 |
| $75–110k | $11,455 |
| $110k+ | $12,378 |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 96 of these 3,487 students, totalling $655,825 — an average of $6,832 each.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (King 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)