Nashville State
Community College
Public Community College in Nashville, TN. Six-year graduation rate 18%. Median 10-year earnings $38,519.
Median earnings ten years after entry come to $38,519, below what most undergraduate institutions return — the central fact to weigh against cost here. Completion is the weak point: 19% graduate within six years. Graduates leave owing a median of $9,595 — modest by four-year standards.
Earnings: College Scorecard, median ten years after entry across students who received federal aid — completers and non-completers alike.
- ✓ Debt-to-income ratio 0.25 — healthy (below the 0.40 threshold)
- ✓ 3-year loan default 0.0% — below national benchmark
- ! Mobility score 0.9 — limited economic uplift documented
- ! Graduation rate 18% — below national average
Academics
Only 19% finish within six years, so roughly four in five students leave without the credential. 44% first-year retention is low enough to be the defining risk of enrolling here. Retention runs well ahead of completion, which means students are not leaving immediately; they are leaving somewhere between the second year and the finish line. 15% transfer out. IPEDS does not follow them, so whether they finished elsewhere is not recorded either way. At 21:1, class sizes land in the normal range for an undergraduate institution.
Financial Aid
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · grant and loan rates against 5,008 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
Students pay an average of $6,892 annually, well below typical undergraduate net price. Income makes less difference than usual: $6,326 at $0–30k, $12,195 at $110k+. About 75% get grants averaging $5,543, so plan on the possibility of paying closer to full price. Federal borrowing is uncommon here at 8% 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 · 1,106 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 | $6,326 |
| $30–48k | $5,974 |
| $48–75k | $7,746 |
| $75–110k | $9,688 |
| $110k+ | $12,195 |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 385 of these 5,008 students, totalling $1,853,653 — an average of $4,815 each.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (Davidson 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)