Meridian College
For-profit College in Sarasota, FL. Six-year graduation rate 51%. Median 10-year earnings $33,735.
Median earnings ten years after entry come to $33,735, below what most undergraduate institutions return — the central fact to weigh against cost here. The six-year graduation rate is 51%, meaning about one in two students who start do not finish. Median debt at graduation is $13,000, a light load against those earnings.
Earnings: College Scorecard, median ten years after entry across students who received federal aid — completers and non-completers alike.
- ✓ 3-year loan default 0.0% — below national benchmark
Academics
51% graduate within six years — average, but that average still hides a large group who do not. Just 50% of first-years come back — most of the completion gap opens in year one. At 15:1, students get materially more instructor contact than at a typical public university. As a for-profit two-year institution, outcomes here deserve a harder look than the sector average suggests: for-profit institutions vary enormously, and the sector's aggregate numbers hide both strong and very weak performers. This is a small school — 181 undergraduates — so cohorts are tight and the program list is necessarily short.
Financial Aid
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · grant and loan rates against 181 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
Net price averages $33,632 annually, so cost is the first thing to weigh here. Net price swings hard on family income here, from $27,793 at the $0–30k band to $36,062 at $110k+. Grant aid reaches 54% of students at an average of $4,691. About 52% borrow federally, roughly the national pattern.
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 · 70 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 | $27,793 |
| $30–48k | $32,922 |
| $48–75k | $33,683 |
| $75–110k | $36,062 |
| $110k+ | $36,062 |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 95 of these 181 students, totalling $302,393 — an average of $3,183 each.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (Sarasota 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)