Orange Coast College
Public Community College in Costa Mesa, CA. Six-year graduation rate 48%. Median 10-year earnings $47,348.
Ten years after entry, the median Orange Coast College student earns $47,348 — a solidly middle-of-the-pack result for an undergraduate institution. Six-year completion sits at 48%, near the national average for undergraduate institutions. Borrowing stays contained, with median debt at graduation of $9,500.
Earnings: College Scorecard, median ten years after entry across students who received federal aid — completers and non-completers alike.
- ✓ Debt-to-income ratio 0.20 — healthy (below the 0.40 threshold)
- ✓ 3-year loan default 0.0% — below national benchmark
Academics
48% graduate within six years — average, but that average still hides a large group who do not. First-year retention is 74% — the single largest point of attrition on this campus. That gap between coming back and finishing is where this school loses people — after the first year, not during it. A 12% 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 51% 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 16,117 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
Average net price is $9,116 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 $5,562 at the $0–30k band to $13,862 at $110k+. Grant aid reaches 53% of students at an average of $4,106. Only 2% 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 · 2,448 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 | $5,562 |
| $30–48k | $6,354 |
| $48–75k | $9,216 |
| $75–110k | $11,890 |
| $110k+ | $13,862 |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 355 of these 16,117 students, totalling $2,083,608 — an average of $5,869 each.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (Orange 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)