Nassau Community College
Public Community College in Garden City, NY. Six-year graduation rate 23%. Median 10-year earnings $48,248.
Students who entered Nassau Community College land at a median of $48,248 a decade later, close to what most four-year schools deliver. Only 23% finish within six years, so roughly three in four students leave without the credential they enrolled for. Borrowing stays contained, with median debt at graduation of $10,500. On economic mobility, 2.3% of students travel from the bottom income quintile 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 0.22 — healthy (below the 0.40 threshold)
- ✓ 3-year loan default 0.0% — below national benchmark
- ! Graduation rate 23% — below national average
Academics
Completion is the problem here: 23% graduate within six years. 64% of full-time first-years come back for year two, so about one in three are gone before sophomore year. 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. A 18% transfer-out rate accounts for part of that gap: those students left for another institution rather than dropping out, and the graduation rate above counts them as non-completers here. Retention drops to 50% for part-time students, a gap worth weighing if full-time study is not realistic.
Financial Aid
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · grant and loan rates against 10,817 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
Average net price is $6,908 a year after grant aid — low for a four-year institution, though your own figure depends on aid eligibility. Net price swings hard on family income here, from $4,029 at the $0–30k band to $14,164 at $110k+. 54% of students receive grant aid, averaging $6,984 — common but not automatic. Only 19% 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 · 2,284 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 | $4,029 |
| $30–48k | $5,507 |
| $48–75k | $9,154 |
| $75–110k | $11,799 |
| $110k+ | $14,164 |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 2,097 of these 10,817 students, totalling $12,522,216 — an average of $5,971 each.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (Nassau 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)