Porter &
Chester Institute
For-profit College in Bridgeport, CT. Median 10-year earnings $41,588.
Students who entered Porter & Chester Institute reach a median of $41,588 a decade later, a figure that trails the typical four-year outcome. Graduates leave owing a median of $12,000 — modest by four-year standards.
Earnings: College Scorecard, median ten years after entry across students who received federal aid — completers and non-completers alike.
- ✓ Debt-to-income ratio 0.29 — healthy (below the 0.40 threshold)
- ✓ 3-year loan default 0.0% — below national benchmark
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. Retention is weak: only 49% of full-time first-years return, so roughly one in two leave after one year. Retention drops to 9% for part-time students, a gap worth weighing if full-time study is not realistic. The 15:1 student-faculty ratio is small enough that seminar-sized classes are the norm. This is a for-profit two-year institution. That is not disqualifying, but it does mean verifying accreditation, transferability of credits, and job-placement claims directly rather than trusting the category.
Financial Aid
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · grant and loan rates against 1,545 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
Average net price after grant aid is $17,633 a year — mid-range for a four-year institution. The gap between the $0–30k and $110k+ bands is narrow ($17,540 versus $23,441), meaning aid is not strongly need-weighted. 67% of students receive grant aid, averaging $2,687 — common but not automatic. Most students borrow — 60% take federal loans to cover the gap.
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 · 314 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 | $17,540 |
| $30–48k | $16,886 |
| $48–75k | $20,045 |
| $75–110k | $22,936 |
| $110k+ | $23,441 |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 927 of these 1,545 students, totalling $1,897,659 — an average of $2,047 each.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (Greater Bridgeport Planning Region) — 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)