Polaris Career Center
Public College in Middleburg Heights, OH. Median 10-year earnings $38,718.
Ten-year median earnings of $38,718 are on the low side, which raises the bar for what this degree needs to cost. Graduates leave owing a median of $6,365 — 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 0.16 — healthy (below the 0.40 threshold)
- ✓ 3-year loan default 0.0% — below national benchmark
Academics
This institution reports no six-year graduation rate. The federal measure only follows first-time, full-time students, so schools built around part-time or transfer enrollment often fall outside it entirely. 85% of full-time first-years return for a second year — a healthy figure. A 12:1 ratio points to small classes and accessible faculty. As a public short-program institution, the relevant comparison is other two-year schools rather than the national average across all institutions. This is a small school — 284 undergraduates — so cohorts are tight and the program list is necessarily short.
Financial Aid
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · grant and loan rates against 284 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
At $12,679 a year on average after grant aid, cost is low here relative to most undergraduate institutions. Net price swings hard on family income here, from $8,080 at the $0–30k band to $17,585 at $110k+. 56% of students receive grant aid, averaging $4,756 — common but not automatic. 32% 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 · 39 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 | $8,080 |
| $30–48k | $14,171 |
| $48–75k | $15,171 |
| $75–110k | $17,070 |
| $110k+ | $17,585 |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 90 of these 284 students, totalling $460,208 — an average of $5,113 each.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (Cuyahoga 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)