Pinnacle Institute
of Cosmetology
For-profit College in Mooresville, NC. Median 10-year earnings $22,786.
Ten-year median earnings of $22,786 are on the low side, which raises the bar for what this degree needs to cost. Graduates leave owing a median of $9,833 — 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
Academics
No six-year graduation rate is reported for this institution, which is common for schools whose students are mostly part-time, transfer in, or enroll in short programs that the federal cohort measure does not track. Its absence is not itself a bad sign, but it does remove the clearest completion signal. First-year retention is 73% — the single largest point of attrition on this campus. At 13:1, students get materially more instructor contact than at a typical public university. As a for-profit short-program school, outcomes here deserve a harder look than the sector average suggests: for-profit institutions vary enormously, and the sector's aggregate numbers hide both strong and very weak performers.
Financial Aid
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · grant and loan rates against 99 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
Students pay an average of $12,422 annually, well below typical undergraduate net price. The gap between the $0–30k and $110k+ bands is narrow ($16,408 versus $19,965), meaning aid is not strongly need-weighted. Grant aid is limited — 40% of students receive any. 64% of students borrow federally, so debt is the norm rather than the exception.
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 · 36 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 | $16,408 |
| $30–48k | $16,734 |
| $48–75k | $18,073 |
| $75–110k | $19,824 |
| $110k+ | $19,965 |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 63 of these 99 students, totalling $442,562 — an average of $7,025 each.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (Iredell County) — budget these against any cost-of-attendance housing estimate.
HUD Fair Market Rents (40th-percentile gross rent incl. utilities) · FY2026