Southern West
Virginia Community and Technical College
Public Community College in Logan, WV. Six-year graduation rate 29%. Median 10-year earnings $32,153.
Ten-year median earnings of $32,153 are on the low side, which raises the bar for what this degree needs to cost. The six-year graduation rate is 29% — low enough that finishing cannot be treated as the default outcome. Borrowing stays contained, with median debt at graduation of $9,190. On economic mobility, 2.7% of students travel 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 0.29 — healthy (below the 0.40 threshold)
- ✓ 3-year loan default 0.0% — below national benchmark
- ! Graduation rate 29% — below national average
Academics
Only 29% finish within six years, so roughly three in four students leave without the credential. 50% 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. Retention drops to 33% for part-time students, a gap worth weighing if full-time study is not realistic. At 18:1, class sizes land in the normal range for an undergraduate institution.
Financial Aid
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · grant and loan rates against 1,144 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
At $10,597 a year on average after grant aid, cost is low here relative to most undergraduate institutions. The gap between the $0–30k and $110k+ bands is narrow ($9,480 versus $15,027), meaning aid is not strongly need-weighted. Most students get help: 85% receive grants worth $6,648 on average. 20% 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 · 320 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 | $9,480 |
| $30–48k | $10,437 |
| $48–75k | $11,793 |
| $75–110k | $13,704 |
| $110k+ | $15,027 |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 230 of these 1,144 students, totalling $1,423,217 — an average of $6,188 each.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (Logan 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)