Visible Music College
Private College in Memphis, TN. Six-year graduation rate 20%. Median 10-year earnings $35,933.
Median earnings ten years after entry come to $35,933, below what most undergraduate institutions return — the central fact to weigh against cost here. Completion is the weak point: 20% graduate within six years. Graduates leave owing a median of $9,500 — 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 0.26 — healthy (below the 0.40 threshold)
- ! Graduation rate 20% — below national average
Admissions
Selectivity is real here: only 28% of applicants are offered a place. The applicant pool is small at 132, which makes year-over-year comparisons unreliable. A 51% yield rate puts this school in the upper range for admits who follow through. The score bands below rest on the 39% of enrolled first-years who submitted an ACT score — a self-selected group, and not a cutoff.
Test score bands (middle 50% of submitters)
These bands describe the enrolled first-years who submitted a score, not the entering class. Where most students apply test-optional the submitters are a self-selected, higher-scoring group.
| Test | 25th–75th percentile | Submitted |
|---|---|---|
| SAT Evidence-Based Reading | — | 1 (5%) |
| SAT Math | — | |
| ACT Composite | 19–30 | 7 (39%) |
IPEDS Admissions · 2024
Apply at Visible Music College →Academics
Only 20% finish within six years, so roughly four in five students leave without the credential. Retention of 67% means a meaningful slice of each entering class does not return. The distance between those two figures is the part worth noticing — students return for a second year at a much higher rate than they graduate, so attrition here is spread across the middle years rather than concentrated in the first. A 20% transfer-out rate accounts for part of that gap: those students left for another institution rather than dropping out, and the graduation rate above counts them as non-completers here. At 6:1, students get materially more instructor contact than at a typical public university.
Financial Aid
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · grant and loan rates against 168 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
Net price lands at $27,045 a year on average, neither cheap nor punishing. Income makes less difference than usual: $27,744 at $0–30k, $30,820 at $110k+. About 78% get grants averaging $5,827, so plan on the possibility of paying closer to full price. Borrowing is widespread: 58% take federal loans.
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 · 31 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 | $27,744 |
| $30–48k | $26,450 |
| $48–75k | $27,873 |
| $75–110k | $30,636 |
| $110k+ | $30,820 |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 97 of these 168 students, totalling $720,487 — an average of $7,428 each.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (Shelby County) — budget these against any cost-of-attendance housing estimate.
HUD Fair Market Rents (40th-percentile gross rent incl. utilities) · FY2026
Veterans & GI Bill
Probation or Equivalent or a More Severe Status: Show Cause (Significantly out of compliance - fiscal and administrative capacity); School has an accreditation issue
VA GI Bill Comparison Tool (Veterans Affairs GIDS)