Paul Mitchell
the School-Costa Mesa
For-profit College in Costa Mesa, CA. Median 10-year earnings $26,897.
Median earnings ten years after entry come to $26,897, below what most undergraduate institutions return — the central fact to weigh against cost here. Graduates leave owing a median of $13,000 — modest by four-year standards.
Earnings: College Scorecard, median ten years after entry across students who received federal aid — completers and non-completers alike.
- ✓ 3-year loan default 0.0% — below national benchmark
- ! Mobility score 0.0 — limited economic uplift documented
Academics
The federal six-year graduation rate is not published here — typically because the entering cohort this measure follows is too small or too atypical to report. Treat completion as unknown rather than assuming either direction. First-year retention of 86% shows the cohort holds together through the hardest year. At 12:1, students get materially more instructor contact than at a typical public university. 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. The undergraduate body is just 657, which shapes everything from class size to how often a required course is offered.
Financial Aid
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · grant and loan rates against 657 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
Students pay an average of $20,324 annually once grants are applied. Income makes less difference than usual: $20,550 at $0–30k, $25,241 at $110k+. Only 43% of students receive grant aid, so most families are paying near the published price. 48% of students take federal loans, a middling borrowing rate.
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 · 249 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 | $20,550 |
| $30–48k | $21,891 |
| $48–75k | $22,252 |
| $75–110k | $24,052 |
| $110k+ | $25,241 |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 315 of these 657 students, totalling $1,363,066 — an average of $4,327 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)