Leeward Community College
Public Community College in Pearl City, HI. Six-year graduation rate 35%. Median 10-year earnings $39,899.
Ten-year median earnings of $39,899 are on the low side, which raises the bar for what this degree needs to cost. Only 35% finish within six years, so roughly two in three students leave without the credential they enrolled for. Borrowing stays contained, with median debt at graduation of $8,970.
Earnings: College Scorecard, median ten years after entry across students who received federal aid — completers and non-completers alike.
- ✓ Debt-to-income ratio 0.22 — healthy (below the 0.40 threshold)
- ✓ 3-year loan default 0.0% — below national benchmark
Academics
Completion is the problem here: 35% graduate within six years. Retention of 72% means a meaningful slice of each entering class does not return. The distance between those two figures is the part worth noticing — students return for a second year at a much higher rate than they graduate, so attrition here is spread across the middle years rather than concentrated in the first. Transfer-out runs to 14% — common enough at this school that the completion rate is measuring a smaller group than the entering class. Retention drops to 52% 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 3,382 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
Average net price is $6,320 a year after grant aid — low for a four-year institution, though your own figure depends on aid eligibility. Net price varies modestly by income — $4,156 at $0–30k against $11,554 at $110k+ — so the average is a fair guide for most families. 44% get grants, which means the net price above will not apply to most applicants. 7% borrow federally — a low rate, though it covers federal loans only.
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 · 448 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 | $4,156 |
| $30–48k | $4,596 |
| $48–75k | $5,206 |
| $75–110k | $7,798 |
| $110k+ | $11,554 |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 234 of these 3,382 students, totalling $1,455,706 — an average of $6,221 each.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (Honolulu 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)