TCAT Athens
Public Community College in Athens, TN. Six-year graduation rate 95%. Median 10-year earnings $40,540.
Median earnings ten years after entry come to $40,540, below what most undergraduate institutions return — the central fact to weigh against cost here. Completion is a strength: 95% of students finish within six years.
Earnings: College Scorecard, median ten years after entry across students who received federal aid — completers and non-completers alike.
- ✓ Graduation rate 95% — well above the national average
Academics
95% of students finish within six years, putting completion well above the national norm. 78% of full-time first-years come back for year two, so about one in five are gone before sophomore year. A 25:1 ratio means students need to be deliberate about getting faculty time. As a public community college, the relevant comparison is other two-year schools rather than the national average across all institutions. This is a small school — 518 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 284 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
Average net price is $12,016 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 $48–75k bands is narrow ($10,299 versus $17,963), meaning aid is not strongly need-weighted. 95% of students get grant aid averaging $5,306, 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 · 103 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 | $10,299 |
| $30–48k | $15,169 |
| $48–75k | $17,963 |
| $75–110k | — |
| $110k+ | — |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (McMinn 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)