Southwest Mississippi
Community College
Public Community College in Summit, MS. Six-year graduation rate 56%. Median 10-year earnings $33,227.
Median earnings ten years after entry come to $33,227, below what most undergraduate institutions return — the central fact to weigh against cost here. Six-year completion sits at 56%, near the national average for undergraduate institutions. It also moves people — 2.7% of students climb from the bottom fifth of the income distribution to the top.
Earnings: College Scorecard, median ten years after entry across students who received federal aid — completers and non-completers alike.
Academics
Completion is middling: 56% finish inside six years. Retention of 69% means a meaningful slice of each entering class does not return. Retention and graduation track closely, so most of the attrition shows up in the first year rather than after it. 14% transfer out. IPEDS does not follow them, so whether they finished elsewhere is not recorded either way. Retention drops to 29% 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 1,501 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
At $4,171 a year on average after grant aid, cost is low here relative to most undergraduate institutions. Income makes less difference than usual: $2,171 at $0–30k, $4,410 at $75–110k. 96% of students get grant aid averaging $6,931, so the published price is a poor guide to what most pay.
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 · 470 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 | $2,171 |
| $30–48k | $2,136 |
| $48–75k | $4,511 |
| $75–110k | $4,410 |
| $110k+ | — |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (Pike County) — budget these against any cost-of-attendance housing estimate.
HUD Fair Market Rents (40th-percentile gross rent incl. utilities) · FY2026
Veterans & GI Bill
Heightened Cash Monitoring (Compliance Audit Late or Missing); School placed on Heightened Cash Monitoring
VA GI Bill Comparison Tool (Veterans Affairs GIDS)