South Georgia
State College
Public Community College in Douglas, GA. Six-year graduation rate 20%. Median 10-year earnings $35,697.
Ten-year median earnings of $35,697 are on the low side, which raises the bar for what this degree needs to cost. Completion is the weak point: 20% graduate within six years. Graduates leave owing a median of $11,500 — 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 0.32 — healthy (below the 0.40 threshold)
- ✓ 3-year loan default 0.0% — below national benchmark
- ! Graduation rate 20% — below national average
Academics
Only 20% finish within six years, so roughly four in five students leave without the credential. 39% first-year retention is low enough to be the defining risk of enrolling here. Retention and completion are close, which places the gap between entering and finishing almost entirely in year one. With 40% transferring out, this functions substantially as a stepping stone. The student-faculty ratio is 18:1 — typical, which in practice means large lectures early and smaller classes in the major.
Financial Aid
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · grant and loan rates against 1,553 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
Students pay an average of $9,052 annually, well below typical undergraduate net price. Income makes less difference than usual: $7,553 at $0–30k, $13,749 at $110k+. 85% of students get grant aid averaging $6,554, so the published price is a poor guide to what most pay. Federal borrowing reaches 32% of students.
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 · 429 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 | $7,553 |
| $30–48k | $7,603 |
| $48–75k | $9,823 |
| $75–110k | $11,781 |
| $110k+ | $13,749 |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 504 of these 1,553 students, totalling $3,080,175 — an average of $6,111 each.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (Coffee 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)