Santa Fe College
Public Community College in Gainesville, FL. Six-year graduation rate 53%. Median 10-year earnings $41,631.
Median earnings ten years after entry come to $41,631, below what most undergraduate institutions return — the central fact to weigh against cost here. The six-year graduation rate is 53%, meaning about one in two students who start do not finish. Graduates leave owing a median of $11,310 — 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 0.27 — healthy (below the 0.40 threshold)
- ✓ 3-year loan default 0.0% — below national benchmark
Academics
Completion is middling: 53% finish inside six years. Transfer-out runs to 19% — common enough at this school that the completion rate is measuring a smaller group than the entering class. A 18:1 ratio is unremarkable; expect a mix of lecture halls and seminars. As a public four-year university, the relevant comparison is other four-year schools rather than the national average across all institutions. With 12,394 undergraduates, this is a large institution — expect the administrative scale and the range of offerings that come with it.
Financial Aid
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · grant and loan rates against 10,857 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
Students pay an average of $11,903 annually, well below typical undergraduate net price. The gap between the $0–30k and $110k+ bands is narrow ($10,268 versus $13,201), meaning aid is not strongly need-weighted. Only 46% of students receive grant aid, so most families are paying near the published price. 13% 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 · 1,111 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 | $10,268 |
| $30–48k | $10,485 |
| $48–75k | $11,608 |
| $75–110k | $12,568 |
| $110k+ | $13,201 |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 1,381 of these 10,857 students, totalling $3,595,004 — an average of $2,603 each.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (Alachua 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)