San Joaquin
Delta College
Public Community College in Stockton, CA. Six-year graduation rate 35%. Median 10-year earnings $43,212.
Students who entered San Joaquin Delta College land at a median of $43,212 a decade later, close to what most four-year schools deliver. The six-year graduation rate is 35% — low enough that finishing cannot be treated as the default outcome. Median debt at graduation is $7,500, a light load against those earnings. Mobility is where this school separates itself: 2.3% of students move from the bottom income quintile to the top.
Earnings: College Scorecard, median ten years after entry across students who received federal aid — completers and non-completers alike.
- ✓ Debt-to-income ratio 0.17 — healthy (below the 0.40 threshold)
- ✓ 3-year loan default 0.0% — below national benchmark
- ! Graduation rate 35% — below national average
Academics
Completion is the problem here: 35% graduate within six years. Retention of 68% means a meaningful slice of each entering class does not return. 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. Retention drops to 45% for part-time students, a gap worth weighing if full-time study is not realistic. At 45:1, instructor access is thin — worth probing on a campus visit.
Financial Aid
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · grant and loan rates against 13,964 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
Average net price is $3,293 a year after grant aid — low for a four-year institution, though your own figure depends on aid eligibility. The gap between the $0–30k and $110k+ bands is narrow ($1,291 versus $7,087), meaning aid is not strongly need-weighted. Only 37% of students receive grant aid, so most families are paying near the published price. 1% 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 · 2,237 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 | $1,291 |
| $30–48k | $1,589 |
| $48–75k | $3,996 |
| $75–110k | $6,942 |
| $110k+ | $7,087 |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 171 of these 13,964 students, totalling $1,121,803 — an average of $6,560 each.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (San Joaquin 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)