The Salon
Professional Academy-Appleton
For-profit College in Appleton, WI. Six-year graduation rate 82%. Median 10-year earnings $32,317.
Median earnings ten years after entry come to $32,317, below what most undergraduate institutions return — the central fact to weigh against cost here. Completion is a strength: 82% of students finish within six years. Median debt at graduation is $9,991, 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 0.31 — healthy (below the 0.40 threshold)
- ✓ Graduation rate 82% — well above the national average
- ✓ 3-year loan default 0.0% — below national benchmark
Academics
A 82% six-year graduation rate is the strongest academic signal on this page. Retention is strong at 88%, and first-year attrition is where most degrees are lost. A 12:1 ratio points to small classes and accessible faculty. This is a for-profit two-year institution. That is not disqualifying, but it does mean verifying accreditation, transferability of credits, and job-placement claims directly rather than trusting the category. This is a small school — 128 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 128 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
Net price lands at $15,414 a year on average, neither cheap nor punishing. Income makes less difference than usual: $16,783 at $0–30k, $23,344 at $110k+. Only 38% of students receive grant aid, so most families are paying near the published price. About 47% borrow federally, roughly the national pattern.
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 · 82 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 | $16,783 |
| $30–48k | $17,268 |
| $48–75k | $21,223 |
| $75–110k | $23,344 |
| $110k+ | $23,344 |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 60 of these 128 students, totalling $407,804 — an average of $6,797 each.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (Outagamie 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)