Texas State
Technical College
Public Community College in Waco, TX. Six-year graduation rate 46%. Median 10-year earnings $38,916.
Ten-year median earnings of $38,916 are on the low side, which raises the bar for what this degree needs to cost. Six-year completion sits at 46%, near the national average for undergraduate institutions. Median debt at graduation is $9,500, a light load against those earnings. It also moves people — 2.9% 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.
- ✓ Debt-to-income ratio 0.24 — healthy (below the 0.40 threshold)
- ✓ 3-year loan default 0.0% — below national benchmark
Academics
46% graduate within six years — average, but that average still hides a large group who do not. Just 50% of first-years come back — most of the completion gap opens in year one. Retention drops to 33% for part-time students, a gap worth weighing if full-time study is not realistic. The 14:1 student-faculty ratio is small enough that seminar-sized classes are the norm. Judge these figures against other institutions of the same type — sector explains more of the variation in completion than any single campus factor.
Financial Aid
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · grant and loan rates against 9,156 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
Students pay an average of $10,421 annually, well below typical undergraduate net price. Income makes less difference than usual: $12,726 at $0–30k, $17,235 at $110k+. 68% of students receive grant aid, averaging $6,929 — common but not automatic. 27% 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 · 2,015 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 | $12,726 |
| $30–48k | $12,807 |
| $48–75k | $15,238 |
| $75–110k | $17,628 |
| $110k+ | $17,235 |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 2,457 of these 9,156 students, totalling $11,732,854 — an average of $4,775 each.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (McLennan County) — budget these against any cost-of-attendance housing estimate.
HUD Fair Market Rents (40th-percentile gross rent incl. utilities) · FY2026