Metro Beauty Academy
For-profit College in Allentown, PA. Median 10-year earnings $33,859.
Ten-year median earnings of $33,859 are on the low side, which raises the bar for what this degree needs to cost. Borrowing stays contained, with median debt at graduation of $8,028.
Earnings: College Scorecard, median ten years after entry across students who received federal aid — completers and non-completers alike.
- ✓ Debt-to-income ratio 0.24 — healthy (below the 0.40 threshold)
- ✓ 3-year loan default 0.0% — below national benchmark
Academics
No six-year graduation rate is reported for this institution, which is common for schools whose students are mostly part-time, transfer in, or enroll in short programs that the federal cohort measure does not track. Its absence is not itself a bad sign, but it does remove the clearest completion signal. First-year retention of 95% shows the cohort holds together through the hardest year. At 16:1, class sizes land in the normal range for an undergraduate institution. This is a for-profit short-program school. That is not disqualifying, but it does mean verifying accreditation, transferability of credits, and job-placement claims directly rather than trusting the category.
Financial Aid
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · grant and loan rates against 249 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
Average net price after grant aid is $18,858 a year — mid-range for a four-year institution. The gap between the $0–30k and $110k+ bands is narrow ($19,016 versus $24,416), meaning aid is not strongly need-weighted. Grant aid is limited — 16% of students receive any. Federal borrowing is uncommon here at 23% 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 · 45 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 | $19,016 |
| $30–48k | $20,682 |
| $48–75k | $20,032 |
| $75–110k | $24,416 |
| $110k+ | $24,416 |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 58 of these 249 students, totalling $324,569 — an average of $5,596 each.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (Lehigh County) — budget these against any cost-of-attendance housing estimate.
HUD Fair Market Rents (40th-percentile gross rent incl. utilities) · FY2026
Veterans & GI Bill
Settlement with U.S. Government
VA GI Bill Comparison Tool (Veterans Affairs GIDS)