Columbia Basin College

Overview of Columbia Basin College

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On balance, CBC's degree paths are targeted towards two-year degrees. Students can launch a brilliant career with an associate degree from Columbia Basin. They can also choose one of 10 bachelor's degree programs such as cyber security, nursing, information technology, or project management. However, CBC students are about more than their academics might indicate.

In fact, the CBC campus is home to a long list of clubs and organizations that keep students engaged and growing outside of the classroom. There are clubs dedicated to academic and career topics such as anthropology, engineering, and history. There are also clubs that are focused on recreation and special interests such as the Japanese Culture Club, Game Club, and Automotive Performance Club. Students can also enjoy unstructured fun at the Fitness Center where they can work out or discover various recreation events including disc golf, intramural sports, and special campus events.

Top Rankings For Columbia Basin College

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Admissions

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Tuition Cost & Financial Aid

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Columbia Basin College is a public institution that provides stellar tuition rates for residents of Washington State. In fact, residents face a rather meager price for a year of top-notch education. That cost is around $6,500. Students who live on campus pay a mere $18,000 for a full year, including their living expenses while off-campus Washington state residents pay a bit less than $20,000. Students from out of state who live in the dorms pay around $20,000 and off-campus dwellers pay $21,000. These numbers reflect what students can expect to pay without financial aid. The ultimate net cost after financial aid is factored in is quite different.

The lower-income students at CBC pay a net price of $8,500 per year and students from mid-level income households pay just over $11,000 for a year at CBC. Meanwhile, students from the top-income households pay as much as $16,000, which is still a fantastic educational value.

Sticker Price

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Academics

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Columbia Basin College is a well-rounded institution that seems to be a middle ground between a small, four-year liberal arts college and a community college. They provide top-quality academic training in conjunction with a strong campus community. Though they don't record a retention rate as part of their educational statistics, CBC still shows its academic value in its graduation numbers.

CBC graduates 28% of its first-time, full-time students. For an institution that is primarily a community college, that’s a strong rate. On top of that is their transfer-out rate, which is 11%. Since transfer students are assumed to move on to larger colleges with more nuanced degree programs, they are often counted as having received a strong academic background and are likely to have received a degree from the institution they transfer to. Thus, an accurate graduation rate might be more in the neighborhood of 39%.

These strong numbers are bolstered by the fact that CBC supports a favorable student-to-faculty ratio. This number shows how many students are in a typical college classroom. The fewer students in a class, the better a faculty member can attend to their needs. CBC reports a student-to-faculty ratio of 18 to 1. While introductory courses are more likely to have higher numbers of students, once a student reaches their upper-level major courses their classes are sure to be smaller and thus have a greater impact.

Student Population Total

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Outcome & Salary

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The value of an education is always far more than the salary it may or may not help a student earn. After all, salaries are often the product of multiple factors, including sheer luck. However, it's may still help you reconcile the cost of a degree when you take a look at average salaries of CBC graduates. Of the top earning alumni, the registered nursing students lead the pack, as they do at many colleges. Those new RNs enter the workforce earning $69,000. Liberal arts and humanities students, on the other hand, report an average entry-level salary of $24,000. However, these alumni can still return for a bachelor's degree from, say, University of Washington and elevate their job description as well as their earnings.

Photos & Videos

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