Empire Beauty School-Augusta vs Hogan Institute of Cosmetology and Esthetics

Metric	Empire Beauty School-Augusta	Hogan Institute of Cosmetology and Esthetics
Undergraduate enrollment	73	69
Average net price What students actually pay after aid	$16,955	$32,724
Median debt at graduation	$10,667	$10,666
Graduation rate	30.0%	82.6%
First-year retention	50.0%	18.2%
Median salary (10 yr)	$23,921	—

Metric

Empire Beauty School-Augusta

Hogan Institute of Cosmetology and Esthetics

Undergraduate enrollment

Average net price
What students actually pay after aid

$16,955

$32,724

Median debt at graduation

$10,667

$10,666

Graduation rate

30.0%

82.6%

First-year retention

50.0%

18.2%

Median salary (10 yr)

$23,921

—

What the numbers say

Empire Beauty School-Augusta costs less after aid — $16,955 a year versus $32,724, a difference of $15,769 annually, or roughly $63,076 across four years.
Hogan Institute of Cosmetology and Esthetics graduates a larger share of its students — 82.6% versus 30.0%.

How to actually choose

Comparison tables are a starting point, not a decision. Three things matter more than anything in the table above:

Your real aid offer. Net price is an average across all income levels. Two students at the same school can pay amounts that differ by tens of thousands. Wait for actual award letters before ruling anything out on cost.
Your intended major. Earnings vary more between majors at one school than between schools for one major. A computer science graduate from the "lower earning" school here will likely out-earn a general studies graduate from the other.
Whether you will finish. Graduation rate is the metric most predictive of whether the money spent turns into a credential. Campus fit, support services, and commute all feed into it more than prestige does.

Visit before you commit

Both Empire Beauty School-Augusta and Hogan Institute of Cosmetology and Esthetics run campus visits. Spending an afternoon on each will tell you things no dataset can.