Lone Star
College System
Public Community College in The Woodlands, TX. Six-year graduation rate 21%. Median 10-year earnings $42,466.
The median ten-year earnings figure of $42,466 sits near the national middle rather than at either extreme. Only 21% finish within six years, so roughly four in five students leave without the credential they enrolled for. Borrowing stays contained, with median debt at graduation of $8,600.
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
- ! Graduation rate 21% — below national average
Academics
Completion is the problem here: 21% graduate within six years. Transfer-out runs to 29% — common enough at this school that the completion rate is measuring a smaller group than the entering class. A 22:1 ratio is unremarkable; expect a mix of lecture halls and seminars. This is a public four-year university, so read every rate on this page against that peer group specifically. With 70,991 undergraduates, this is a large institution — expect the administrative scale and the range of offerings that come with it.
Financial Aid
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · grant and loan rates against 47,486 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
Average net price is $11,686 a year after grant aid — low for a four-year institution, though your own figure depends on aid eligibility. The gap between the $0–30k and $110k+ bands is narrow ($10,657 versus $14,572), meaning aid is not strongly need-weighted. Only 43% of students receive grant aid, so most families are paying near the published price. Only 11% 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 · 5,546 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 | $10,657 |
| $30–48k | $11,515 |
| $48–75k | $11,128 |
| $75–110k | $13,120 |
| $110k+ | $14,572 |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 5,196 of these 47,486 students, totalling $31,598,355 — an average of $6,081 each.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (Montgomery 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)