Shelton State
Community College
Public Community College in Tuscaloosa, AL. Six-year graduation rate 30%. Median 10-year earnings $35,014.
Ten-year median earnings of $35,014 are on the low side, which raises the bar for what this degree needs to cost. The six-year graduation rate is 30% — low enough that finishing cannot be treated as the default outcome.
Earnings: College Scorecard, median ten years after entry across students who received federal aid — completers and non-completers alike.
- ! Graduation rate 30% — below national average
Academics
Completion is the problem here: 30% graduate within six years. 58% first-year retention is low enough to be the defining risk of enrolling here. Retention runs well ahead of completion, which means students are not leaving immediately; they are leaving somewhere between the second year and the finish line. Transfer-out runs to 20% — common enough at this school that the completion rate is measuring a smaller group than the entering class. Retention drops to 40% for part-time students, a gap worth weighing if full-time study is not realistic.
Financial Aid
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · grant and loan rates against 3,192 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
At $14,539 a year on average after grant aid, cost is low here relative to most undergraduate institutions. Income makes less difference than usual: $14,091 at $0–30k, $16,269 at $110k+. Grant aid reaches 80% of students at an average of $3,598.
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 · 755 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 | $14,091 |
| $30–48k | $14,492 |
| $48–75k | $16,073 |
| $75–110k | $17,545 |
| $110k+ | $16,269 |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (Tuscaloosa 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)