Pellissippi State
Community College
Public Community College in Knoxville, TN. Six-year graduation rate 31%. Median 10-year earnings $38,440.
Ten-year median earnings of $38,440 are on the low side, which raises the bar for what this degree needs to cost. Only 32% finish within six years, so roughly two in three students leave without the credential they enrolled for. Graduates leave owing a median of $8,725 — 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 0.23 — healthy (below the 0.40 threshold)
- ✓ 3-year loan default 0.0% — below national benchmark
- ! Graduation rate 31% — below national average
Academics
Only 32% finish within six years, so roughly two in three students leave without the credential. Just 58% of first-years come back — most of the completion gap opens in year one. The distance between those two figures is the part worth noticing — students return for a second year at a much higher rate than they graduate, so attrition here is spread across the middle years rather than concentrated in the first. A 22% 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.
Financial Aid
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · grant and loan rates against 6,424 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
Students pay an average of $6,568 annually, well below typical undergraduate net price. Income makes less difference than usual: $4,085 at $0–30k, $9,114 at $110k+. 73% of students receive grant aid, averaging $5,237 — common but not automatic. 4% borrow federally — a low rate, though it covers federal loans only.
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 · 1,922 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 | $4,085 |
| $30–48k | $4,194 |
| $48–75k | $6,369 |
| $75–110k | $7,966 |
| $110k+ | $9,114 |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 235 of these 6,424 students, totalling $1,273,017 — an average of $5,417 each.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (Knox 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)