Trinidad State College
Public Community College in Trinidad, CO. Six-year graduation rate 55%. Median 10-year earnings $36,475.
Ten-year median earnings of $36,475 are on the low side, which raises the bar for what this degree needs to cost. The six-year graduation rate is 55%, meaning about one in two students who start do not finish. Median debt at graduation is $8,908, 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 0.24 — healthy (below the 0.40 threshold)
- ✓ 3-year loan default 0.0% — below national benchmark
Academics
Six-year completion sits at 55%, meaning about one in two students who enroll leave without finishing. Retention of 64% means a meaningful slice of each entering class does not return. Transfer-out runs to 15% — common enough at this school that the completion rate is measuring a smaller group than the entering class. The student-faculty ratio is 16:1 — typical, which in practice means large lectures early and smaller classes in the major. 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 1,168 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
Students pay an average of $12,198 annually, well below typical undergraduate net price. The income table below is the number that matters — $9,366 at $0–30k versus $18,413 at $110k+. About 80% get grants averaging $9,852, so plan on the possibility of paying closer to full price. Only 17% take federal loans. Private borrowing is not captured in this figure.
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 · 271 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 | $9,366 |
| $30–48k | $10,284 |
| $48–75k | $10,379 |
| $75–110k | $14,945 |
| $110k+ | $18,413 |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 202 of these 1,168 students, totalling $1,311,519 — an average of $6,493 each.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (Las Animas 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)