Southwest College
for the Deaf
Public Community College in Big Spring, TX. Six-year graduation rate 40%. Median 10-year earnings $38,382.
Median earnings ten years after entry come to $38,382, below what most undergraduate institutions return — the central fact to weigh against cost here. The six-year graduation rate is 40%, meaning about three in five students who start do not finish. Median debt at graduation is $9,500, a light load against those earnings.
Earnings: College Scorecard, median ten years after entry across students who received federal aid — completers and non-completers alike.
- ✓ Debt-to-income ratio 0.25 — healthy (below the 0.40 threshold)
- ✓ 3-year loan default 0.0% — below national benchmark
Academics
Completion is middling: 40% finish inside six years. 93% of full-time first-years return for a second year — a healthy figure. That gap between coming back and finishing is where this school loses people — after the first year, not during it. 20% transfer out. IPEDS does not follow them, so whether they finished elsewhere is not recorded either way. At 7:1, students get materially more instructor contact than at a typical public university.
Financial Aid
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · grant and loan rates against 47 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
Students pay an average of $3,832 annually, well below typical undergraduate net price. Net price varies modestly by income — $900 at $0–30k against $7,701 at $75–110k — so the average is a fair guide for most families. Most students get help: 96% receive grants worth $11,853 on average. Only 6% 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 · 15 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 | $900 |
| $30–48k | $2,153 |
| $48–75k | $5,307 |
| $75–110k | $7,701 |
| $110k+ | — |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 3 of these 47 students, totalling $32,676 — an average of $10,892 each.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (Howard County) — budget these against any cost-of-attendance housing estimate.
HUD Fair Market Rents (40th-percentile gross rent incl. utilities) · FY2026