Tacoma Community College
Public Community College in Tacoma, WA. Six-year graduation rate 32%. Median 10-year earnings $47,168.
Students who entered Tacoma Community College land at a median of $47,168 a decade later, close to what most four-year schools deliver. The six-year graduation rate is 32% — low enough that finishing cannot be treated as the default outcome. Median debt at graduation is $13,000, 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 0.28 — healthy (below the 0.40 threshold)
- ✓ 3-year loan default 0.0% — below national benchmark
- ! Graduation rate 32% — below national average
Academics
Completion is the problem here: 32% graduate within six years. A 20% transfer-out rate accounts for part of that gap: those students left for another institution rather than dropping out, and the graduation rate above counts them as non-completers here. At 17:1, class sizes land in the normal range for an undergraduate institution. This is a public four-year university, so read every rate on this page against that peer group specifically. With 5,771 undergraduates, the school sits in the middle of the size distribution.
Financial Aid
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · grant and loan rates against 4,248 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
Students pay an average of $9,803 annually, well below typical undergraduate net price. Aid is steeply need-based: families in the $0–30k band pay $7,112 while those at $110k+ pay $16,093. About 55% get grants averaging $6,863, so plan on the possibility of paying closer to full price. 16% 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 · 821 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 | $7,112 |
| $30–48k | $7,691 |
| $48–75k | $8,108 |
| $75–110k | $12,371 |
| $110k+ | $16,093 |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 695 of these 4,248 students, totalling $4,537,512 — an average of $6,529 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)