Long Beach
City College
Public Community College in Long Beach, CA. Six-year graduation rate 30%. Median 10-year earnings $38,870.
Ten-year median earnings of $38,870 are on the low side, which raises the bar for what this degree needs to cost. The six-year graduation rate is 30% — low enough that finishing cannot be treated as the default outcome. Borrowing stays contained, with median debt at graduation of $10,500. It also moves people — 3.3% 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 0.27 — healthy (below the 0.40 threshold)
- ✓ 3-year loan default 0.0% — below national benchmark
- ! Graduation rate 30% — below national average
Academics
A six-year graduation rate of 30% means finishing is closer to the exception than the rule. Retention of 71% means a meaningful slice of each entering class does not return. That gap between coming back and finishing is where this school loses people — after the first year, not during it. Retention drops to 38% for part-time students, a gap worth weighing if full-time study is not realistic. At 29:1, instructor access is thin — worth probing on a campus visit.
Financial Aid
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · grant and loan rates against 21,899 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
Average net price is $7,565 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: $5,505 at $0–30k, $10,089 at $110k+. 71% of students receive grant aid, averaging $4,709 — common but not automatic. Only 2% 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 · 3,003 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 | $5,505 |
| $30–48k | $5,412 |
| $48–75k | $8,180 |
| $75–110k | $10,042 |
| $110k+ | $10,089 |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 509 of these 21,899 students, totalling $3,760,228 — an average of $7,387 each.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (Los Angeles 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)