The Salon
Professional Academy-Altoona
For-profit College in Altoona, PA. Median 10-year earnings $20,809.
Ten-year median earnings of $20,809 are on the low side, which raises the bar for what this degree needs to cost. Graduates leave owing a median of $6,333 — modest by four-year standards.
Earnings: College Scorecard, median ten years after entry across students who received federal aid — completers and non-completers alike.
- ✓ Debt-to-income ratio 0.30 — healthy (below the 0.40 threshold)
- ✓ 3-year loan default 0.0% — below national benchmark
Academics
The federal six-year graduation rate is not published here — typically because the entering cohort this measure follows is too small or too atypical to report. Treat completion as unknown rather than assuming either direction. Retention is strong at 92%, and first-year attrition is where most degrees are lost. A 10:1 ratio points to small classes and accessible faculty. As a for-profit short-program school, outcomes here deserve a harder look than the sector average suggests: for-profit institutions vary enormously, and the sector's aggregate numbers hide both strong and very weak performers. This is a small school — 119 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 119 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
Average net price is $14,501 a year after grant aid — low for a four-year institution, though your own figure depends on aid eligibility. Income makes less difference than usual: $13,817 at $0–30k, $21,191 at $110k+. Grant aid is limited — 43% of students receive any. 60% of students borrow federally, so debt is the norm rather than the exception.
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 · 44 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 | $13,817 |
| $30–48k | $13,227 |
| $48–75k | $14,657 |
| $75–110k | $21,441 |
| $110k+ | $21,191 |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 71 of these 119 students, totalling $472,884 — an average of $6,660 each.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (Blair 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)