Santa Fe
Community College
Public Community College in Santa Fe, NM. Six-year graduation rate 23%. Median 10-year earnings $38,005.
Median earnings ten years after entry come to $38,005, below what most undergraduate institutions return — the central fact to weigh against cost here. The six-year graduation rate is 23% — low enough that finishing cannot be treated as the default outcome. Graduates leave owing a median of $13,236 — 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 0.35 — healthy (below the 0.40 threshold)
- ✓ 3-year loan default 0.0% — below national benchmark
- ! Graduation rate 23% — below national average
Academics
Only 23% finish within six years, so roughly three in four students leave without the credential. 59% first-year retention is low enough to be the defining risk of enrolling here. That gap between coming back and finishing is where this school loses people — after the first year, not during it. Transfer-out runs to 17% — common enough at this school that the completion rate is measuring a smaller group than the entering class. The part-time picture is harder: 47% return, against 59% full-time.
Financial Aid
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · grant and loan rates against 2,234 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
Students pay an average of $12,429 annually, well below typical undergraduate net price. Income makes less difference than usual: $10,145 at $0–30k, $13,688 at $48–75k. 36% get grants, which means the net price above will not apply to most applicants. Only 2% take federal loans. Private borrowing is not captured in this figure.
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 · 182 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 | $10,145 |
| $30–48k | $11,255 |
| $48–75k | $13,688 |
| $75–110k | — |
| $110k+ | — |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 41 of these 2,234 students, totalling $296,045 — an average of $7,221 each.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (Santa Fe 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)