Summit Salon Academy
For-profit College in Tacoma, WA. Six-year graduation rate 59%. Median 10-year earnings $31,648.
Median earnings ten years after entry come to $31,648, below what most undergraduate institutions return — the central fact to weigh against cost here. Six-year completion sits at 59%, near the national average for undergraduate institutions. Borrowing stays contained, with median debt at graduation of $9,785.
Earnings: College Scorecard, median ten years after entry across students who received federal aid — completers and non-completers alike.
- ✓ Debt-to-income ratio 0.31 — healthy (below the 0.40 threshold)
- ✓ 3-year loan default 0.0% — below national benchmark
Academics
59% graduate within six years — average, but that average still hides a large group who do not. Retention is weak: only 10% of full-time first-years return, so roughly nine in ten leave after one year. The 13:1 student-faculty ratio is small enough that seminar-sized classes are the norm. Being a for-profit two-year institution is the single most useful context for these numbers — the sector's spread is wide enough that the school-level figures matter more than usual. This is a small school — 221 undergraduates — so cohorts are tight and the program list is necessarily short.
Financial Aid
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · grant and loan rates against 221 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
Net price lands at $23,301 a year on average, neither cheap nor punishing. Income makes less difference than usual: $23,204 at $0–30k, $29,873 at $110k+. 43% get grants, which means the net price above will not apply to most applicants. 50% of students take federal loans, a middling borrowing rate.
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 · 125 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 | $23,204 |
| $30–48k | $23,696 |
| $48–75k | $25,388 |
| $75–110k | $28,112 |
| $110k+ | $29,873 |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 110 of these 221 students, totalling $856,431 — an average of $7,786 each.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (Pierce 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)