William Rainey
Harper College
Public Community College in Palatine, IL. Six-year graduation rate 48%. Median 10-year earnings $48,071.
Students who entered William Rainey Harper College land at a median of $48,071 a decade later, close to what most four-year schools deliver. The six-year graduation rate is 48%, meaning about one in two students who start do not finish. Median debt at graduation is $10,184, 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 0.21 — healthy (below the 0.40 threshold)
- ✓ 3-year loan default 0.0% — below national benchmark
- ! Mobility score 0.9 — limited economic uplift documented
Academics
Completion is middling: 48% finish inside six years. First-year retention is 77% — the single largest point of attrition on this campus. Retention runs well ahead of completion, which means students are not leaving immediately; they are leaving somewhere between the second year and the finish line. 17% transfer out. IPEDS does not follow them, so whether they finished elsewhere is not recorded either way. The part-time picture is harder: 58% return, against 77% full-time.
Financial Aid
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · grant and loan rates against 8,815 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
At $12,145 a year on average after grant aid, cost is low here relative to most undergraduate institutions. Net price swings hard on family income here, from $9,446 at the $0–30k band to $18,676 at $110k+. 47% get grants, which means the net price above will not apply to most applicants. Only 3% 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 · 1,520 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 | $9,446 |
| $30–48k | $10,501 |
| $48–75k | $13,426 |
| $75–110k | $16,866 |
| $110k+ | $18,676 |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 261 of these 8,815 students, totalling $1,633,446 — an average of $6,258 each.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (Cook 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)