Southwestern Illinois College
Public Community College in Belleville, IL. Six-year graduation rate 36%. Median 10-year earnings $36,884.
Median earnings ten years after entry come to $36,884, below what most undergraduate institutions return — the central fact to weigh against cost here. The six-year graduation rate is 37% — low enough that finishing cannot be treated as the default outcome. Borrowing stays contained, with median debt at graduation of $6,908.
Earnings: College Scorecard, median ten years after entry across students who received federal aid — completers and non-completers alike.
- ✓ Debt-to-income ratio 0.19 — healthy (below the 0.40 threshold)
- ✓ 3-year loan default 0.0% — below national benchmark
- ! Mobility score 1.0 — limited economic uplift documented
Academics
A six-year graduation rate of 37% means finishing is closer to the exception than the rule. Retention of 68% means a meaningful slice of each entering class does not return. The distance between those two figures is the part worth noticing — students return for a second year at a much higher rate than they graduate, so attrition here is spread across the middle years rather than concentrated in the first. 17% transfer out. IPEDS does not follow them, so whether they finished elsewhere is not recorded either way. Retention drops to 55% 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 5,280 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
Average net price is $10,147 a year after grant aid — low for a four-year institution, though your own figure depends on aid eligibility. The gap between the $0–30k and $110k+ bands is narrow ($9,136 versus $15,587), meaning aid is not strongly need-weighted. 48% get grants, which means the net price above will not apply to most applicants. Only 15% 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 · 729 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 | $9,136 |
| $30–48k | $8,769 |
| $48–75k | $11,473 |
| $75–110k | $14,512 |
| $110k+ | $15,587 |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 786 of these 5,280 students, totalling $3,022,846 — an average of $3,846 each.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (St. Clair 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)