The Salon
Professional Academy-Battle Creek
For-profit College in Battle Creek, MI. Median 10-year earnings $21,504.
Ten-year median earnings of $21,504 are on the low side, which raises the bar for what this degree needs to cost. Borrowing stays contained, with median debt at graduation of $6,333.
Earnings: College Scorecard, median ten years after entry across students who received federal aid — completers and non-completers alike.
- ✓ Debt-to-income ratio 0.29 — healthy (below the 0.40 threshold)
- ✓ 3-year loan default 0.0% — below national benchmark
Academics
No six-year graduation rate is reported for this institution, which is common for schools whose students are mostly part-time, transfer in, or enroll in short programs that the federal cohort measure does not track. Its absence is not itself a bad sign, but it does remove the clearest completion signal. 100% of full-time first-years return for a second year — a healthy figure. At 20:1, class sizes land in the normal range for an undergraduate institution. This is a for-profit short-program school. That is not disqualifying, but it does mean verifying accreditation, transferability of credits, and job-placement claims directly rather than trusting the category. At 77 undergraduates, expect a small, closely-held student body.
Financial Aid
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · grant and loan rates against 77 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
Net price lands at $19,225 a year on average, neither cheap nor punishing. Income makes less difference than usual: $19,225 at $0–30k, $22,922 at $30–48k. 94% of students get grant aid averaging $3,859, so the published price is a poor guide to what most pay. Most students borrow — 65% take federal loans to cover the gap.
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 · 5 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 | $19,225 |
| $30–48k | $22,922 |
| $48–75k | — |
| $75–110k | — |
| $110k+ | — |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 50 of these 77 students, totalling $262,046 — an average of $5,241 each.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (Calhoun County) — budget these against any cost-of-attendance housing estimate.
HUD Fair Market Rents (40th-percentile gross rent incl. utilities) · FY2026