Oakton College
Public Community College in Des Plaines, IL. Six-year graduation rate 37%. Median 10-year earnings $47,852.
Ten years after entry, the median Oakton College student earns $47,852 — a solidly middle-of-the-pack result for an undergraduate institution. Completion is the weak point: 37% graduate within six years. Median debt at graduation is $5,250, 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.
- ✓ Debt-to-income ratio 0.11 — healthy (below the 0.40 threshold)
- ✓ 3-year loan default 0.0% — below national benchmark
Academics
Completion is the problem here: 37% graduate within six years. Retention of 69% 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. Transfer-out runs to 25% — common enough at this school that the completion rate is measuring a smaller group than the entering class. The part-time picture is harder: 53% return, against 69% full-time.
Financial Aid
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · grant and loan rates against 6,282 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
Students pay an average of $5,401 annually, well below typical undergraduate net price. Income makes less difference than usual: $3,847 at $0–30k, $11,431 at $110k+. 36% get grants, which means the net price above will not apply to most applicants.
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 · 407 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 | $3,847 |
| $30–48k | $5,084 |
| $48–75k | $7,235 |
| $75–110k | $9,496 |
| $110k+ | $11,431 |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 24 of these 6,282 students, totalling $83,247 — an average of $3,469 each.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (Cook 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)